Connections
by ZanyIzzy
Summary: It's the start of a new adventure! After the discovery of a mysterious white digivice, a new enemy appears! Familiar faces return and a whole new battle to save a life commences! IzzyXOC - Prequel to Summer in Alaska - R&R! RE-WRITTEN!
1. The White Digivice

**WARNING!I****f you do not like OCs or OCs coupling with characters from the original show, please don't read this****!**

**Okay! After a lot of effort to get my brain working I finally figured out how I want to write this story! **

**This story has literally been planned out since I was maybe in grade 7 or 8 (I'm a high school graduate now…) and I've attempted to write it a dozen times. But after a serious reality check I realized there was a lot of problems with the characters and for the longest time didn't know how to connect the beginning to the end of the story.**

**But now I've come up with a complete story outline that I'm quite pleased with. It might change a little bit as we go on, I might add or get rid of some things. But overall I'm very happy with the story I've created!**

**I hope you enjoy it too and sorry for the long beginning authors note…many of you will probably skip reading this XD**

**Anyway, I DO NOT own anything to do with Digimon or its characters!**

**This story is the prequel to ****Summer in Alaska**** (go read it if you want! XD)**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Digimon Adventure: Connections

Chapter 1: The White Digivice

The tingling sound of the wind chime by the window seemed dulled next to the louder volume of the television against the young boy's ears. The house was peaceful and the summer breeze was cool, but still a little warm against his bare legs. His mom was in the kitchen, humming whilst washing the dinner dishes. Yuck, they'd had roast beef tonight…his mom was the worst cook ever…

Kari was sat on the living room carpet, lying flat on her stomach with her crayons splayed all around her. She silently coloured in her small colouring book with her legs kicking back and forth behind her. She had been acting slightly strange that day but he didn't pay too much mind to it.

His dad was doing some late work in the computer room on their massive computer. That room was so messy nobody really liked to go in it. He himself wasn't too good with computers; he never usually went on one unless they had to for school. He liked sports, in particular, soccer. He wanted to become a national soccer player and go to the national championships! It was a big dream, but he could do it. There was nothing else he wanted to do.

Suddenly Kari jumped up.

"Hey mom! Look, I've finished," she said and skipped over to their mother with her colouring book. Her mom glanced at it and looked back at the dishes.

"Oh, that's very pretty sweetie!" she said, "do you want to go show your brother?" she added. Kari nodded, excitement sparkling in her eyes. She spun around and jogged over towards him.

"Tai! Tai look at my picture!" she said, bubbling with pride. Tai leaned up from his lying position on the couch and looked at his little sister's drawing. He smirked once he saw it.

"It looks like an alien," he teased and burst out laughing. Kari pouted and dropped the book.

"It does not! It's a princess!" she argued. Tai laughed and pointed to it.

"Then why is her skin purple?" he laughed. Kari fumed.

"Just never mind!" she grumbled, crossing her arms and walking back over to her crayons. She sat down angrily and began packing up her crayons. Tai snickered. She was too fun to tease.

Suddenly Kari started coughing lightly; Tai glanced at her, but then paid no mind. It was until her coughs became more violent that he perked up.

"Hey, Kari, are you okay?" he asked worriedly. Their mom heard her cough and quickly came over, drying her hands on her apron. She leaned down and felt Kari's forehead.

"Oh dear! Honey your burning up, do you have a fever?" their mom panicked. Kari just lolled her head to the ground and kept picking up her crayons. Tai sat up.

"Maybe, it's a cold?" he suggested. Their mom stood up and rushed to the kitchen. A feeling of dread suddenly sprouted in Tai's stomach.

Was that why she had been acting slightly strange today? Guilt took over and Tai bit his lip. Was it his fault? He had forced her to go out with him that day, to go shopping for supplies for the school camping trip they were going to go on tomorrow, even though the list mostly consisted of candy. He should have seen the signs that morning when they were watching TV.

They had sat in the living room watching the news. A bunch of reports were on saying that weather all around the world had changed drastically. Snow in America, floods in the Middle East, and even the swamplands in Southeast Asia had dried up due to draught. The weatherman had said it was due to the current destruction of the environment but Kari had said "he's wrong."

Tai looked at her through a mouthful of his breakfast. "What?"

Kari stared at the TV screen and her eyes almost looked hazed over. "Digi…mon…" she mumbled softly. Tai raised an eyebrow.

"Digimon? What's that?" he asked. He'd never heard that word before. Kari looked at him in surprise.

"You can't see it nii-chan?" Kari asked. Tai squinted his eyes slightly in confusion.

"See what? I don't see anything…"

"Oh," Kari's shoulders dropped slightly, "never mind then, don't worry about it." She turned back to the screen and gazed at the news reports again with that same hazed over look in her eyes. Tai had ignored it then but now that he thought back to it that could have been when she had started to get sick. If he had checked her forehead that time he would have known earlier how she was feeling and couldn't have prevented her fever.

Tai's face crumpled as he watched his mother fuss over his now deflated sister whose face had rapidly become flushed and her eyes half lidded. He felt horrible. If only he had checked…..she wouldn't have a fever now. Tai quickly rushed over to the freezer to get an icepack. If he did this much at least we wouldn't feel has helpless as he suddenly did. His mother had Kari propped on the counter and was giving her two spoonfuls of a purple liquid that made Kari's face crunch as she tasted it. Tai hesitantly handed the icepack to his mom and she peeled the plastic off the back and stuck it to Kari's forehead. Her face broke out into a relaxed smiled and the cold soothed her hot skin.

"Are you okay?" Tai asked weakly. Kari smiled.

"Thanks for the ice pack Tai" she said brightly. Somehow those words made Tai feel a little worse. Their mom scooped Kari into her arms and Kari lolled her head onto her mom's shoulder.

"Alright let's go put you to bed now," Yuuko Kamiya said sweetly to her daughter. "Tai can you go put out the trash downstairs?" Tai pouted. Not liking the chore but too guilty about Kari to stand and complain like he normally would.

"Alright," he said and walked over to the front door where the garbage bag sat waiting for him. "Be right baack," he sang nervously and headed out the door. As he shut it he heard his mom telling Kari she would have to stay home from camp and he sighed. They were supposed to go on a school camping trip for two weeks tomorrow, it would kinda suck now that Kari wasn't coming. She had been as excited about it a he had. Though there were some classmates he knew that were going, and some he knew only as acquaintances.

Tai tightened his grip on the garbage bag and lifted it slightly so it wouldn't drag on the pavement. Once he was comfortable he continued towards the elevator, no way was he carrying this down the stairs.

But when he looked up to see where he was going he stopped. There was…a girl standing there. Tai had never seen her before. But if she was here she must live in the same apartment complex as he did, maybe the same floor? Then why had he never seen her before? She didn't go to his school….or maybe she was in a different class? But even then he would've seen her around the grounds.

The girl looked about his age, but was shorter. She had long blonde hair that brushed just past her mid back. It was messy and drifting about in the wind, but it seemed as if she didn't notice. She was fairly tanned, but not like him, and had pretty small features. She stood close to the railing, looking out at the night city and her small hands lightly gripped the metal bars. It would seem as if she was admiring the view, if not for the completely blank and emotionless expression on her face.

Tai looked at her for a moment longer before snapping out of it. She didn't seem to notice him so he paid no mind to her. Besides, the way she was staring blankly like that…it was kind of creepy. Tai frowned and quickly skipped past her. Once he got to the elevator he looked back. She was still there, and still didn't seem to have noticed him.

Weird girl.

Tai quickly took the trash bag down to the dumpster and tossed it in. He made his way back up, taking the stairs this time, and finally reached his floor.

He almost wasn't surprised to see the blonde girl still standing there. Tai almost made it to his front door when he decided to turn around one last time. Her position hadn't changed. Tai looked her over one more time. She was in her pajamas, and she had no socks or slippers on. He could see her toes where starting to get red from the cold. Wait, when had it gotten cold outside? He shivered as a gust of wind blew over them. He noticed the girl shiver lightly as well. He sighed in annoyance and finally called out to her.

"Oi! What are you doing? Go inside or else you'll catch a cold!" he barked. The girl finally turned, acknowledging his existence for the first time. She stayed silent, just looking at him. Tai got the creepy vibe from her again but walked up closer to her, maybe she hadn't heard him?

"Hey, I said you'll catch a cold," he said walking straight up to her. The girl looked at him for a solid minuet before any emotion finally showed on her face. Her face scrunched up in distraught and huge tears spilled from her brown eyes. She began whimpering lightly, until it became louder. Tai froze. What the hell!

Tai backed away slightly. He hadn't even done anything! Why was she crying all of a sudden?

The girl began to wail and tears streamed down her face, creating wet blotches on the pavement at her feet. Tai was at a loss and really didn't like the situation he was in. So he did the only thing he thought was reasonable.

He ran back to his house, opened the door, and shut it as quickly as he could.

* * *

Three weeks had passed since Tai had met the blonde girl. The day after he had gone to camp and participated in the adventure that had changed his life.

He had been taken to the Digital World with six other children, later joined by his sister when she was feeling better, and paired up with his very own digital monster, Agumon! With the eight kids and their partners they helped defeat the evil that had developed in the Digital World and saved all of its inhabitants. The only problem was, in the end, they had to leave their new found digital partners and had to return to their normal lives, not thinking they'd ever be able to see their digimon again.

Tai sighed sadly as he trudged up the stairs to his apartment. It was the afternoon and the cicadas where buzzing loudly in the trees and the sun burned into the back of Tai's sweaty neck. He missed Agumon. He missed all the digimon. But at least he had a new group of friends that he had become a lot closer to than ever before.

Tai hummed the theme to a kids show that Kari liked, it had been stuck in his head all day, and finally got to his floor. He trudged past a couple doors until he spotted a group of middle aged women huddling around the apartment door two down from his own. Tai raised an eyebrow and quickly shuffled by. It wasn't until he heard their conversation that he actually stopped to listen, shocked.

"Is it true then? She really died?" one woman whispered.

"Hush Kimiko! 'Passed away' is much more respectful," another lady barked.

"But is it true?"

"Yes, I heard, about three weeks ago now, the one girl, the sick one that was in the hospital, died!"

"What! What about her sister? They were twins right?"

"Yes, apparently she's sick too,"

"Oh the poor girl! She's only young isn't she?"

"Yes, 11 years old,"

"A shame..."

"they moved to Canada the next day, they'd been planning to go since the beginning of the year, but then the one twin died right before they were supposed to leave,"

"Poor thing, I wonder how the surviving daughter is handling it..."

The ladies then bustled away, changing the topic to grocery sales prices. Because those two topics were _**completely**_ similar…Tai stood still, eyes wide. Someone in his apartment building had died? And, she had been his age…

Tai suddenly remembered the weird girl he had met right before camp. Had it been her? Was she the surviving daughter? Or was she the one that died? But wait, if she had been crying, maybe she was the one that survived then, and was just grieving. Tai put his hands in his pockets to keep them from shaking.

Such a scary thing…happened to someone… who lived so close to him. Tai felt a little bit cold and quickly rushed back towards his house. His was a little frazzled and wanted to get rid of his fright as quick as possible. He darted into his cool house and shut the door rather harshly behind him, making sure it was locked.

* * *

2 Years Later

The short middle schooler ran his pale hand through his short crop of maroon coloured hair. He was hunched over his prized yellow PiBook laptop in his homeroom classroom with his eyebrows furrowed together in concentration.

Even though Izzy was a year younger then Tai, Matt and Sora, and he was only turning 12 this year, because of his superior grades and intellect when compared to the level of education for each grade, he was given special permission to graduate elementary school a year early and start middle school with his friends. The difference in his age didn't bother him at all and he felt more at home with what he was learning now and didn't feel at all that he was behind in his studies. He was never late for class and even sometimes his classmates would come up to him for help on school work. Though not often.

He was even lucky enough to have been placed in the same class as Tai and the others, which means he had at least three familiar classmates. This year he even became Captain of the Computer club, though some of the girls in the club were taller than him. He was only a junior but it seemed his reputation with computers had reached through his middle school and all the club members nominated him Captain with no qualms about his age or the grade he was in.

But none of these recent events were what was taking all of his concentration at the moment. Izzy bit his lip, worry etching across his features.

Was what he was looking at real?

He scanned over the map of the Digital World that Gennai had programmed into his computer years ago and was shocked at what he saw. In each little pixel of the map, black dots would randomly appear and start spreading rapidly to create larger masses. Soon entire towns and cities had been engulfed in black. The blobs kept moving around as well, slowly and steady making their way around the map whilst growing bigger and spawning new blobs. And in the middle, in the middle of the biggest continent, Server, there was the biggest black blob that stayed still and never moved. All the other blobs were miniscule in comparison.

Worried, Izzy moved to grab his D-Terminal from his computer bag but something else distracted him. His small digivice that he always kept clipped to his bag began to vibrate and beep hysterically. Izzy's frown deepened and he unclipped the small device. He looked at the tiny screen and his chest tightened. It was a warning signal from Gennai. Something must be wrong in the Digital World.

Suddenly a message blipped on his computer screen and he turned his attention back to it. No sooner had he sent out the warning, Gennai sent an urgent e-mail to Izzy's laptop. Izzy quickly opened and breezed through the contents. It read:

_Quick! Izzy, round up as many digidestined as you can and get to the nearest gate! There is urgent news I need to speak to you about the Digital World! Hurry!_

Izzy's heart leapt into his throat. His worries had been confirmed. Izzy quickly shut off his computer and placed it safely into his laptop bag. He threw it over his shoulder and dashed from the empty classroom as quick as his legs could carry him…which wasn't very far considering he wasn't the most athletic of students…

The only digidestined that he'd be able to get to on time was Tai. He had after school soccer but the rest had plans. Just great, of all times for the team to be busy it was today! As Izzy ran he finally spotted the gym door. It was raining today so the soccer club was practicing in the gym. The red-head ran with all his might to push it open. But unfortunately he wasn't strong enough and slammed right into it, bouncing off and falling to the floor. His hands whipped to cover his stinging face and throbbing nose as white spots blinked across his field of vision. He sat in shock before blushing in embarrassment and quickly collecting himself, standing to his feet. He glanced around; making sure no one saw and quickly heaved the gym door open.

He was relieved to see Tai in the gym with the other soccer players practicing drills. Huffing for breathe from all his running he cupped his hand to his mouth and called out.

"Tai! Tai, quick!" he called. Tai stopped the drill he was working on and looked over, surprised. He smiled at first and waved, but then the expression slipped off of his face when he noticed the panic on his friend's features. Izzy needed no more explaining and Tai immediately ditched the practice and ran towards Izzy.

"Hey! Hey Kamiya where the hell do you think you're going!" the gym coach growled in his booming voice. Tai turned and grinned.

"Sorry coach! Be back in a sec!" he sang and speeded out of the room before his coach could think to run after him. Tai reached a panting Izzy by the door and cocked his head.

"What's wrong? What happened?" he said, his voice becoming serious. Izzy held up his digivice.

"I got a warning from Gennai; I think something is wrong in the Digital World!" Izzy said. Tai's eyes widened and he became worried.

"Okay, quick lets go to the computer lab," he said and Izzy nodded. Both boys broke out into a run again, heading for the elementary school computer lab on the second level. Their middle school was right next to the two boys' old elementary school. When they were still students there, Izzy had discovered that the gate to the Digital World most frequently opened on one certain computer in the schools lab. So whenever they all took a trip to the Digital World they would usually use that computer unless the gate decided to appear on someone's home computer.

Once Tai and Izzy got there they were happy to see the lab was empty and Izzy bee lined for one of the computers in the front row. He sat down, turned on the monitor and began typing excessively and a bunch of windows suddenly appeared. Tai hovered over, leaning on the back of the computer chair Izzy was sitting in. Both boys gasped for breath, just having booked it from one school to the other and tried to ignore the sweat dripping down into their shirts.

In seconds Izzy had the map to the Digital World up and another e-mail from Gennai appeared. Izzy opened it immediately and the two boys read.

_Hey you two, I'll be appearing in your world briefly as a hologram to give you the details, but I'll have to speak quickly for the transition isn't that good._

As soon as they had finished reading a light shone from the computer screen and both boys squinted and shielded their eyes. A small hologram of an old man emerged and floated about a meter from the screen, glitching every now and then. The old man put a fist to his mouth and coughed.

"Hello boys, is this all that could make it?" he asked in a croaky voice. Izzy looked down at the ground.

"Yeah, everyone else is occupied at the moment, it will take a little longer to get them here but I sent them messages along the way," Izzy mumbled. Tai crossed his arms.

"Okay so get to the point, what's happening right now?" he asked, impatient. Gennai rolled his eyes.

"Very well, I know you guys defeated the last of the darkness that threatened the Digital World two years ago, but…" Gennai started.

"That's not the case?" Izzy said darkly. Tai tensed.

"What!' he growled. Gennai nodded gravely.

"Yes, a new darkness as appeared, out of nowhere," the old man sighed.

"What do you mean out of nowhere? It had to come from somewhere," Tai said. Gennai shook his small head.

"That's just it, we have done so much investigating, but we have no idea where this darkness has come from. Last time it came through the wall o f fire, but this one didn't come from there," Gennai explained. "The only thing we've been able to figure out is that it's slowly been growing under our radar for about two years now, until now it's finally gotten out of control," Tai and Izzy's eyes widened.

"Two years! So it's been there since we defeated Apocalymon and the Dark Masters, Is it because of them?" Izzy questioned. Gennai shook his head.

"We would've known if it had spawned from their evil, no, this is a different kind of evil," Gennai said. Izzy chewed on his bottom lip, deep in thought.

"So, do you know anything else about this thing? Like what it looks like or what its purpose is so we have a clue as to how we can defeat it?" Izzy wondered. Gennai nodded.

"**That**, we do know! From the information we have gained the darkness is after a great power that grants eternal life. It wants to rule over the Digital World forever. We haven't been able to directly confront it because it keeps spawning these digimon called _seekers_. It's odd because these seeker digimon have never been recorded or seen before, it's like they are a completely new species! None of them are in any of the Digital data bases," Gennai said worriedly. "These seekers go around in large groups terrorizing the other digimon in search for clues to find the eternal life."

"But there's no such thing as eternal life..." Tai said simply, Izzy nodded in agreement.

"The scientific possibility of any living being successfully being able to surpass the physical effects of time is impossible!" Izzy said. Gennai shook his head and wagged a finger at the two teenagers.

"Not exactly. There are ancient scrolls from way back into the Digital World's history that prove there is an existence that can grant eternal life. It comes in the form of an incredibly strong healing power that can grant eternal life to any healthy being," Gennai explained. Tai snorted.

"That's messed," Tai muttered. Izzy rolled his tongue around in his mouth for a minute before speaking.

"So, we have to defeat the darkness before it finds this supposed eternal power, and that's all? That doesn't seem too hard for us," Izzy said, shrugging. He turned to the computer and begun typing a message. "although we gave up our crests last May to release the four holy beings, we still have the upper hand I think…" he said, though as he continued the more his voice seemed to whittle as he realized they were significantly less powerful then they used to be. Gennai raised a hand.

"Ah! But there's one more thing you m-m-ust k-k-know-w-w" but his transmission began to fuzz dramatically. Izzy and Tai turned to look at him.

"What? What is it?" Tai said before Gennai disappeared. The old man started speaking again but the sound of his voice was so scratched up neither boys could comprehend what he was saying. And then he disappeared. Both boys' shoulders sagged.

"Great…why does that always happen when he needs to say something that, more often then not, is really important," Tai muttered, crossing his arms in a huff. Izzy sighed and turned back to the computer.

"Well, I'll check to see if anyone replied to my earlier message. We need to get to the Digital World with a plan as quick as we can," Izzy concluded. Tai nodded and glanced over the young red-head's face.

"Dude, why's your nose all red?" he asked. Izzy jumped and turned bright red.

"Ugh, _**nothing**_," he said, embarrassed. Was it still really red from hitting the door?

Tai shrugged and got out his cell phone to call his mom. He was coming home late tonight…

Luckily about an hour later the two boys got everyone to the school computer lab and explained to them what they both knew. The five other teens nodded in understanding. The total group number made up seven and all were ready to go fight.

There was Sora Takenouchi and Matt Ishida, the same age as Tai. Joe Kido, who was one year older than Tai. TK Takaishi, Matt's little brother who had to come all the way over from where he lived with his mom in Sangenjaya, and Tai's little sister, Kari. They had an eighth member to their group as well, but she had recently moved to America and it was hard keeping in regular contact with her.

"Okay, so you guys know the details, are we going or not?" Tai said impatiently. Kari gave him a stern look.

"Calm down Tai, we need a plan, what will we do once we get there?" she asked. Izzy spun around in his chair from facing the computer screen.

"Personally, I think we shouldn't come in too strong at first. We should go in and take a look around, find our digimon and figure out what they know about the whole situation. Then if we get confronted by a seeker we can determine the level of strength our new enemy has accumulated," Izzy suggested. They all paused.

"Sounds good to me," Matt said, resting his hands in his pockets. Kari looked worried.

"I'm worried about Gatomon and the others…we don't have our crests anymore, can we still beat it?" she asked worriedly. Sora put hand on the young girls shoulder.

"I'm sure we'll all be alright, what else can we do?" Sora said and smiled. Kari smiled weakly back. Everyone paused and worry crossed their features as well.

"C'mon guys! We've always been able to beat the bad guys! It'll be no different this time and you better not think otherwise!" Tai said heatedly and everyone else nodded in agreement. Tai grinned now that everyone's spirits we up. "Alright, does everyone have their digivice?" he asked. Each child held up their own small hand held device and grinned.

"Of course we do," TK laughed. Tai clenched a fist.

"Alright! Then let's go get those seekers!" Tai growled and held out his device to the computer screen. The gate to the Digital World appeared and opened in a quick beep. Everyone else held up their digivice and the familiar feeling of the computer sucking them all in took over. Within seconds all seven of them were gone from the computer room, no evidence left behind that they had been there except for the beeping digital portal that closed up right after them.

As soon as they all whizzed through the portal they landed harshly onto a forested ground. Tai coughed to get his breathe back, winded from the fall. Izzy stood up and brushed off his school uniform, holding up his digivice to look at it. There was a small beeping dot on it that got closer and closer to them. He smiled widely.

"Looks like they already knew we were coming," he said happily, looking up just in time to see a group of oddly shaped creatures rushing up to greet them. Everyone got to their feet excitedly and waved their hands back and forth.

"Biyomon!""Agumon!""Gatomon!""Gomamon!""Patamon!""Gabumon!" they all shouted, calling their own partners to them. Izzy grinned when he saw his partner buzz towards him with, what he assumed, was a happy expression.

The bug-like creature dove into Izzy's outstretched arms. It looked like a cross between a robot and a massive ladybug-fly with long claw like appendages for arms and bulbous green eyes and sparkled in the light. Izzy laughed.

"Tentomon!" he greeted and the creature gave him an equivalent of a hug.

"Izzy! So nice to see you again!" the digimon, now named Tentomon, called even though his mouth did not move. The others all greeted their own partners happily, having not seen them in a very long time. After their first adventure in the Digital world ended the kids thought they wouldn't see their partners again. But it wasn't until November later the same year that Tai discovered a gate that had opened for only a few minutes on his dad's computer at home. After that the gate opened every now and then for different intervals at a time. They had to be careful how much time they spent in the Digital World or else the gate would close on them and they'd be stuck there, unable to return home until the gate opened again.

Izzy stood up and got to business.

"So, I'm sure you guys all know what's been going on here recently, we've just found out, is there anything you know about this new darkness that's appeared?" Izzy asked. The digimon all became alert.

"Yes! It came out of nowhere one day and big waves of the seeker digimon came and destroyed all the temples and buildings in search for some sacred power," Biyomon, a pink bird digimon, explained.

"We've never even heard of any sacred power before," Patamon said as he flew above TK's before landing comfortably on the blonde boy's head.

"If you've never heard of it, how can we be sure it exists?" TK said worriedly looking up at his partner.

"I don't think it does exist, these guys are all just loopy," Gomamon hummed, shrugging his fin-like arms.

"Well, they're still a problem and we need to get rid of them," Tai said, gritting his teeth. Izzy was about to open his mouth to give his own input when a loud cracking of the trees echoed from above them. Suddenly a huge tree branch crashed down towards them. Sora screamed and all the teens quickly jumped out of the way with the help of their digimon. Matt whipped up from where he was thrown to the ground when Gabumon pushed him out of the way.

"What the hell was that!" he asked. Izzy looked up and gasped. There was a huge black figure looming over them. It looked like a large grim reaper with a hooded head that hid its face, though its blood red eyes shone through, glimmering like jewels. It's long black, and ripped cloak flowed to the ground and opened up past its waist to show two large muscular legs that looked like they belonged to some sort of animal with large black claws protruding from the feet. A large intricate scythe draped in chains that clanged about seemed to hover next to the digimon as its arms, if it even had any, were tightly bound by a thick rubber brace around its midsection. The entire digimon was different shades of black, the only colour being the red of its eyes.

"Oh no! It's a seeker!" Tentomon said in a shaky voice. Izzy gulped and quickly stood to his feet. Tai growled from beside him.

"Yeah well, he doesn't look so tough! C'mon Agumon lets teach him a lesson!" Tai called and in a second Agumon was on his feet and glowing bright yellow. The rest of the team followed suit and each of their digimon digivolved into their Champion forms. Greymon, Kabuterimon, Garurumon, Birdramon, Angemon, and Ikkakumon emerged and took their battle stances.

Izzy grinned. Perfect! This digimon didn't seem to be any stronger than a Champion level; with all of them ganging up on it they would defeat it in a second. And with that, the seven digimon each delivered a series of their own attacks, sometimes individually, or sometimes all together.

Only, there was a problem.

With each attack delivered, the mysterious digimon swiped them away meaninglessly with its scythe, as if they were buzzing flies that it was swatting away. Izzy stood in shock. What was happening? This was a Champion level digimon, how on earth was it not being affected!

"Hey! What's wrong Greymon!" Tai yelled. Greymon shrugged his big shoulders.

"I don't know Tai, for some reason our attacks aren't working!" Greymon growled. Izzy bit his lip. This wasn't good.

Just then the big black digimon raised its scythe and in one swift move swiped it down towards them. The teens immediately dropped to their knees and pressed against the forest floor. Their digimon jumped and just barely dodged the attack. The blade swung down and cleanly split all the tops of the trees right off like it was cutting through butter. The branches and trunks all came crashing down around them. Izzy concluded that the digimon was using some sort of telekinetic power to move the weapon with its mind. He heard Tai yell in frustration as he clambered back up to his feet.

"C'mon guys! Try again!" Tai yelled. All the digimon nodded in understanding and each set off a series of their own attacks at the same time, giving the seeker blow after blow of their combined attacks. But the same thing happened; it was just like they were blowing air onto it. Izzy looked around frantically; his friend's faces became worried. He looked back up at their confused and tired digimon and gave up.

"Tai!" he called, "there's no way were going to beat this guy! Something's off we need to re-group and figure it out!"

Tai watched the battle with a burning gaze, not wanting to give up as soon as they had started, but eventually his shoulders sagged. Izzy was right. Something was wrong and before they continued fighting these digimon seekers they needed to figure out how to get around it. Tai turned and looked at his friends, they were waiting for him to give the order, stay or run?

"Arrghh! Let's go!" Tai said in an annoyed tone. He glanced around and saw a nearby cave about two miles ahead in the face of a cliff. He gave the order for the group to head into it and waited until they had all gotten to their feet and managed to get about halfway there before his sister called out to him.

"Tai! Come on!" she called worriedly. Tai huffed in annoyance and just managed to step out of the way of a falling branch. He gave the battle one last look before turning and running after his friends. When they had all successfully entered the cave their digimon de-digivolved and rushed in after them. They all pressed themselves against the walls of the cave and listened as the sound of the seeker started moving away and got duller and duller in their ears.

Tai huffed angrily and dropped into a squat, crossing his arms across his chest and fuming. He hated running away from fights.

"Stupid," he spat. Izzy caught his breathe and looked down at his digivice. His worry escalated and he glanced at Tai nervously.

"Um Tai?" he called.

"What?"Tai hissed. Izzy gulped.

"There's another problem,"

"What!"

"The…the gate is closed, we can't go back…" Izzy mumbled, waiting for Tai's wrath. But Tai only huffed again.

"Psh! Of _**course**_ it is," he said sarcastically, "great, just _**great**_!"

Kari scowled at her brother.

"Tai, grow up, so _**what**_ if we didn't beat him? We would've _**died**_ if we kept going," she snapped. Tai shut his mouth and looked and the floor guiltily.

"I don't understand, why couldn't we beat it?" Joe asked. Gomamon was cuddled up in his arms, tired from digivolving and fighting.

"It was only a Champion level yet…we couldn't even get a scratch on it," Sora said. Izzy nodded.

"I speculate there is something more to this, some sort of power that doesn't allow us to affect the digimon in any way, at least through physical combat that is…" Izzy said, rubbing his chin in thought. They all stood in quiet thought before Kari perked up noticing something. She wandered over to one of the cave walls and pressed her hand to it. She cocked her head to the side and began stroking down the wall.

"Hey guys," she called softly, "there's something on the walls of this cave," she said. At this everyone looked up to see what the young girl was talking about. Izzy wandered over and touched where Kari had been stroking the walls. His eyes widened.

"There seems to be some sort of engraving on these walls, and they're not naturally carved," he said looking up. The carving was a bunch of odd lines going every which way and traveled to the floors and up to the ceiling of the cave. Kari stepped back, keeping her gaze on the carvings and gasped.

"It's a picture! They create a picture!" she said. Izzy stepped back as well and the others all crowded around them.

"How curious," Izzy said in an awed voice. The carvings made out different digimon all walking towards something. They all faced inwards and seemed to be walking into the cave. There was cryptic writing on the bottom that seemed to explain what was going on but Izzy couldn't read it. He hadn't brought his laptop with him either to match the characters with the digital language programmed on his computer. His scolded himself for not bringing it. Tentomon wobbled up and inspected the carvings, and then he jumped in surprise and started waving his hands around.

"Oh my! Izzy! This is a _**temple**_!" he said excitedly. Izzy raised his eyebrows.

"Can you read the inscriptions?" he asked. Tentomon shook his head.

"Nope, but I recognize these pictures!" he said happily. Patamon hovered over top, looking at the pictures.

"Oh yeah! I think I've wandered in here a long time ago, it's…ummm…actually I don't quite remember what this temple is for," Patamon laughed, sticking out his pale pink tongue. Sora rested her hand on her chin and cocked her head.

"Is it me, or does it look like the digimon in these carvings are worshiping something?" she asked. She walked over and pointed to the pictures. "See? Their arms are all up in the air as if their bowing or something," she explained. Izzy nodded.

"Yeah, it does seem that way," he said. Suddenly all of the children's digivices started beeping rapidly, taking them all by surprise. Izzy was the first to look at his. There was another signal coming from somewhere inside the cave. Joe scrunched his eyebrows in confusion.

"Hey, don't we normally get these signals when there is another digivice nearby? Why are they going off now? We're all here…" he said.

"Unless, it's Mimi?" Matt guessed.

"Why would Mimi be in a random temple?" Tai asked. Matt shrugged.

"Well, do we want to go see what it is?" Kari asked hopefully. TK smiled at her.

"Yeah, I like that idea, let's go in and see what's sending the signal," he said cheerily. He always agreed with Kari. Izzy shrugged.

"It's not a big problem if we go," he said, turning to look at Tai for an answer. Tai sighed.

"Sure why not, we have to wait until the gate opens back up anyway," he said and hopped to his feet. He seemed to be recharged and rid of his anger from before, which relieved all of his friends. Tai was annoying when he was angry. They all agreed and began trekking deeper down into the odd cave-temple.

As they walked the temple looked like any other rocky cave, and the carvings kept going on down the walls. The further they walked though, the more the cave smoothed out into a stone tunnel with smooth walls and the carvings became clearer. Finally after about ten minutes of walking the cave started to open up and emerged into a large temple-like room. There were lamps lit all around giving the large room a warm glow. The walls were decorated with plants and vines that snaked all the way from the ceilings to the floors. This place had obviously been untouched for many, many years. The carvings from before grew more intricate and flooded into the temple, covering all the walls. The worshiping digimon turned into crowds and crowds and in the center of the wall, up a large flight of stone steps there was a large ball, of what looked like a large light, or star, carved into the wall. The rays of the light shone out over all of the digimon as they all crowded around the mysterious light. The group was in awe as they made their way up the flight of stairs, their footsteps echoing and bouncing off the stone walls.

"Amazing, it's very similar to the stories and legends painted on temple walls by the ancient Egyptians," Izzy said, his eyes glued and studying all the carvings and carved passages written around all the pictures. When they all reached the top they found a pedestal in the middle of what looked like a small shrine. On the top of the pedestal was the same carving of the digivice that Izzy and Mimi had discovered in another temple long ago when they were younger. Yet, there was nothing on top of this pedestal.

Tai wandered closer to it.

"There's nothing here…" he said, disappointed. TK looked at his digivice.

"But the signals still there, it's right in front of us," he said, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. Tai shrugged and tapped the top of the pedestal with his palm.

"Well there must be something wrong with it cause there's nothing…_**whoa**_!" he jumped away from the stone pedestal quickly. As soon as he had touched it the pedestal began to glow white. The glowing light spread out from the pedestal and out of the shrine, highlighting all of the carvings in the wall and floor and spreading like wildfire throughout the temple. The light kept travelling and blinded them, causing the group to shield their eyes.

The temple kept glowing for a second before the light dulled and faded away. Sora peeked from her hands and sighed, putting her hands on her hips.

"Good job, you better hope the temple won't collapse now or something," she scolded. Tai shrugged.

"I didn't think it would do anything," he pouted. As the light finished dimming the temple returned to being eerily quiet. Tai was almost about to suggest leaving when Kari gasped.

"The pedestal!" she said, covering her mouth. They all returned their attention to the pedestal and their eyes widened in shock. As if the rock had become liquid a small glowing object floated up from deep inside the stone and quietly drifted upwards. It was small, maybe about the size of half a person's palm, and had an orb of white light around it. Suddenly Tai realized what it was and reached out towards it.

"Tai!" Kari whispered frantically, but Tai turned and gave her a reassuring look. He then reached out and clasped the object in his fist and it immediately stopped glowing and floating and rested peacefully in his palm. Tai looked down at his hand. The others all crowded around him, eager to see what it was.

"Open your hand Tai," Izzy said excitedly. Tai paused, but then slowly un-curled his fingers to reveal the object. Looks of confusion and shock flashed over everyone's faces and a million questions must have appeared in their minds.

"This is," Izzy mumbled, "a white digivice?"

* * *

**Ta DAH! First chapter donnee **

**I'm quite happy with it actually, a better first chapter than what I had last time. But it's so hard writing action scenes O_O I don't know how to write them properly _ and there are a few more coming up so I don't know what I'll do *_* gaahh.**

**Oh well, I hope you enjoyed it anyway, please review! Comments and opinions are greatly appreciated!**


	2. The Start of a New Adventure

Digimon Adventure – Connections

Chapter 2: The Start of a New Adventure

The group of digidestined and digimon stood stunned and silent. Their breath just barely echoing on the stone walls of the giant underground temple they were in. Tai flipped around the small device in his hands, inspecting the entire thing.

"It really is…a digivice," Sora mumbled in shock. Izzy took the device from Tai and looked at it closely.

"Yes, indeed, it seems to be the exact same model as ours," he said, "but…whose is it I wonder?"

"It's not like we're the only digidestined in the world… there was Willis in America, so there must be others…but as far as we know, we're the only ones in Japan…" Kari muttered. Izzy had informed them before of the young digidestined from America that he had met online.

"Does this mean there is another child in Japan? If so who's their partner?" Joe asked, just as confused. They all really didn't know what to say. Even their digimon partners were at a loss.

Just then, from the pedestal that the mysterious digivice came from a familiar hologram appeared and took form. They all perked up as they recognized who it was. Gennai stood before them once again, as he always did when they had a bunch of questions that they couldn't answer.

"Hello there, digidestined," the old man greeted. The group said their hellos but before Gennai could speak Tai snatched the new digivice from Izzy's hand and held it up.

"So, can you explain this?" he demanded. Gennai nodded.

"Yes, that's just what I came to talk to you about. Do you remember why the Digital World needs digidestined?" Gennai began. Tai crossed his arms.

"What does that old story have to do with this?" he said and Gennai held up a finger.

"Just wait my boy, I'm getting to that," he said, the slightest hint of annoyance coming across in is tone. "Now, the reason the Digital World summons digidestined children in the first place is because they are the force that keeps this world at balance. When darkness emerges that effects the digital world, the real world in turn is affected and the balance between both is broken. When this happens, chosen children are taken from the real world, and paired up with the chosen digimon from this world and create the digidestined. They join forces and together fight and get rid of any dark threats. Only then can both worlds return to peace and stay in balance."

"Yes, that is why we were chosen a long time ago, so we could get rid of the Dark Masters and Apocalymon," Izzy said simply. Gennai nodded, and then looked down gravely.

"That's usually the case, but this is the very first time in history where the threat is different. This is an evil we have never seen before and, with recent research, we've figured out the only way it can be defeated," Gennai said, looking up to face the group. They all gasped. Tai stepped forward a little in excitement. They were finally going to figure out the problem with the seeker digimon they had tried to defeat earlier.

"These new digimon, the seeker digimon and probably the unknown digimon that is controlling them, they cannot be defeated by normal means," Gennai spoke. The rest nodded.

"Exactly! When we tried to fight that Champion level seeker, we couldn't get a scratch on it!" Matt said. Gennai nodded.

"Yes, these digimon have a special ability that no other digimon has. Infused in all of them is the power to block any attacks thrown at them, no matter what the level of digimon delivering the attack. It is a power that comes from within the core and, from what we know, is caused by the pure darkness infused in them. Of course, we still can't comprehend what this darkness is exactly and where it originated," Gennai sighed, "but, the only way to defuse the barrier around these new seeker digimon is to purify them first."

They all paused. _**What?**_

"Purify? You mean to null the darkness?" Izzy asked. Gennai nodded. Izzy bit his lip. "But, how on earth can we do that?" he asked. A feeling of hopelessness grew in all of them. They had no idea how to do what Gennai was asking of them. How was this going to work?

"You see, there is the other problem," Gennai breathed, "from what we've discovered in the ancient texts, only one legendary digimon has the power to purify beings, The Legendary Digimon of Life." Another wave of hopelessness flew over the group, dampening their moods. Oh great. How were they supposed to find a legendary digimon? What if it didn't even exist and was just folklore? Though…they had all assumed that about the power of eternal life, yet that supposedly existed.

"How do we find this digimon?" Tai asked. The others glanced at him nervously, unsure if what he was asking was possible. They were all seriously expecting Gennai to say he didn't know, but that wasn't the case.

"You cannot find them, this digimon is only loyal to that who holds life in their hands," Gennai said simply. Tai almost wanted to punch a wall right now he was so annoyed. Just _**one**_ thing after _**another**_. Everyone was silent, feeling the same hopelessness and overall annoyance that Tai felt. They had never felt so useless at all. There were so many things they couldn't do. Some digidestined _**they**_ were…

Gennai opened his mouth to begin speaking, but as usual, his image started to glitch furiously and he only managed to croak out some goodbyes before the hologram disappeared. A gloom rested over everyone's heads and they didn't speak, their minds running a mile a minute. Izzy's digivice beeped once and he lazily looked at it.

"Tai…the gates open…" he muttered.

The group of seven, now extremely troubled, children lounged around the computer in the school's computer lab, having just gone through the portal to their world from the digital world. Izzy inspected the new white digivice in his hands, looking it over and over as if it was going to do something the longer he looked at it.

"So, from what we know, there is a new mysterious white digivice that doesn't seem to belong to anyone, and isn't connected to a digimon. Also, we know that we cannot beat these new seeker digimon, or the digimon controlling them, unless we first purify them to null the barrier they all posses. On top of that, the only digimon capable of purification is a legendary digimon of life that we cannot find unless we find first the one that's holds life in their hands," Izzy explained, laying down all the different aspects of their new dilemma. Everyone nodded slowly.

"From the way it seems, we need to find the one who holds life in their hands first, then go from there," Sora said, she was leaning on the window sill so her silhouette was glowing in the moonlight.

"But who could that be?" Joe wondered. Izzy held up the white digivice.

"I speculate that because there is this new digivice that we've just acquired, it must belong to that one person who holds life in their hands. I don't see who else or for what purpose this digivice could have," he said.

"So, we need to look for a new digidestined?" TK put simply. Izzy nodded.

"Precisely,"

"So I'm not the last one in Japan…" Kari murmured.

"Assuming there is another digidestined as you said, does that mean their digimon partner will be the legendary digimon we're looking for?" Matt asked. Izzy shrugged.

"That's the best logical assumption," he replied. Izzy turned and took out his laptop, which had been in his computer bag that he'd hidden in the desk. He turned it on quickly and it hummed to life. Once he was logged in he inserted the new digivice into the plug that Gennai had installed into his computer when he was 10 and quickly looked up the device's internal files. Tai leaned on the back of Izzy's chair to get a better look.

Izzy had already memorized all the hard drive and file components to his own digivice after hours of studying them so it was just a matter of comparison to see if anything was different between the two. Everyone was silent as Izzy tapped away and read through file codes. Finally he noticed something and spoke up.

"According to the hard drive, this device it pretty much the same as ours," Izzy started, "which means, like ours, it will activate as soon as it is touched, or gets close to its owner."

"Alright! At least we know that much, way to go Iz," Tai grinned slapping Izzy over the back. Izzy blushed in embarrassment.

"This is nothing, really," he said bashfully.

"So, like we did with Kari, we need to find this new digidestined is' all, right?" Tai said, light coming back into his expression.

"Yeah, basically," Izzy said, smiling. Grins broke out over everyone's faces as they finally figured out what they _**could **_do.

"It's settled then, the race to find the 9th digidestined starts now!" Tai called lamely. Everyone nodded in agreement. Finally hyped up again they all left the computer room to sneak out of the school and go home to catch some much needed sleep. It was past midnight and their parents were probably worried sick on their deathbeds. Izzy clutched the new digivice in his palm and nodded to himself.

"Alright, let's go!" he cheered to himself, and put the device safely into his uniform pocket. He quickly packed up his computer and caught up to his friends in the dark hallways, almost excited now that a new adventure had begun.

* * *

Skyy stood rigid at the front gate of her new middle school. She was 13 years old now, a middle school freshman. Her long blonde hair, which had now grown down to just past her mid back, blew around her. She tucked some behind her ear and warily observed her new school.

The building was a two-story, red brick building and in the front was a big courtyard with gardens surrounding its perimeter and a beautiful fountain sitting in the middle. The April air made it fairly warm outside, but the air was damp, hinting at a future rainfall later that day. The clouds were also grey and so the grounds looked a little washed out with the lack of sunlight. It was a fairly big property, with the high school and elementary school being right beside it. Students chattered happily whilst walking into the school in groups of two or more, all bundled up to escape the elements. Skyy bit her lip, feeling awkward standing there all by herself. She quickly willed her legs to move and walked through the courtyard and into the building.

She found her new locker and slipped her shoes inside, changing into her indoor shoes, and then quickly dipped out of the crowds of students that usually hung around in the locker rooms before class started. She wandered the hallways until she found the correct classroom and slid the door open. As soon as she entered her homeroom class her ears were filled with the loud babble of students gossiping or making plans for after school. Some students looked up to see who'd entered but looked back down finding it wasn't anyone they knew. She waited by the door, uneasy with the atmosphere. This place was so familiar, yet unfamiliar because she didn't know anyone.

Until recently, Skyy had been living in Canada for the past two years. She remembered what it was like in Japanese schools, but had gotten so used to Canadian schools that she almost wasn't used to the all the formalities and rules that Japanese schools laid down. Just before she finally made a move to step into the room, the teacher bustled in from behind her, knocking her into the door frame. Skyy bit her lip as her shoulder dug into the wood but made no complaint. The teacher clambered in and dropped the piles of paper she had been carrying in her arms onto her desk in a big huff.

The teacher was a woman probably in her late 20s to early 30s. She looked like a complete nerd with big glasses and baggy, unflattering clothes. The woman heaved a breath and quickly stood up. As soon as the students saw her they all stopped chatting and immediately rushed to their seats.

"Students! Rise," the teacher called in a strong, stern voice. The class stood respectfully and bowed, saying good morning. The teacher nodded in approval and straightened up her shirt.

"Alright! Now, to start off today the first announcement is!" the teacher paused, as if for dramatic affect. "We have a new student joining us today!" she finally burst and flung a finger in Skyy's direction. Skyy flinched from the doorway as all the student's eyes locked on her. How on earth had the teacher known she was the new student? She hadn't even introduced herself yet. The students began to whisper and gave her confused glances. Well she could admit it was strange that she was transferring two weeks after the first day of school, instead of coming on the first day like everyone else.

"Now come! Don't be shy and introduce yourself," the teacher commanded. Despite her appearance and her entrance the teacher had a very high and demanding voice. She was definitely the type of person that could command respect and attention through her speech. Skyy gulped and slowly stepped forward until she was standing in front of the class. The teacher gave her a look as if to say she gave Skyy permission to begin speaking. Skyy cleared her throat.

"My name is Tsutsumi Skyy, please take good care of me starting today," she said and bowed politely to the class. She twisted her fingers in her hands nervously. The teacher eyeballed her for a minute and Skyy felt like she was shrinking under her intense gaze.

"Is that all?" she asked. Skyy nodded once.

"Yes," she said and the teacher shrugged.

"Okay then, everyone please treat Miss Tsutsumi kindly. You may sit in that empty seat over by the window," she said in a tone that made it seem final and Skyy hesitated before realizing she was supposed to leave now. She looked up to find her seat and her heart almost stopped when she saw the boy who would be sitting behind her.

He sat casually , wearing a rather wide necked shirt that peeked at his collar bone. His hands were casually in his uniform pockets and his hair was a ragged mess of brunette. His eyes were a soft dazzling brown but seemed to be scrutinizing her as she walked closer to him. She quickly skidded over to the empty seat and dropped in it rather loudly. A couple people gave her long looks before returning their attention to their teacher. Skyy blushed in embarrassment and hooked her book bag onto her desk as quietly as she could. The teacher watched her until she settled in and when she was satisfied she finally turned and began reading off more announcements.

As class dragged on Skyy could feel a burning gaze at her back. Was it the guy sitting behind her? She chanced a glance about halfway through the first period and quickly whipped back around. She was right; he'd been looking at her. She frowned and bit her lip, trying to focus on her studies. Just what was so interesting? She willed with all her might that he would focus on something else but she felt the gaze heating up her back all period. When the bell rang for lunch it seemed like a ray of sunlight from heaven and all the students shot up from their seats. She leaned closer to the window as she heard the chair behind her skid out and the brunette guy breeze by her. She glanced up at him and he passed by her without even giving her a glance back.

She frowned. That was rude. After he had been looking at her all period he completely ignored her and walked past. You think he'd had something to say to her, she found it annoying. She followed him with her eyes and saw him waltz up to a group of three other people who sat in different desks in their class. Two of the students were guys, and the other a rather pretty girl.

The girl was about average height, maybe a few inches taller than Skyy and had flaming short red hair that fanned out at the base of her neck. Her eyes were a deep, but warm brown and she sat perked politely in her chair with her elbows on the desk and her chin resting in her palms. She looked up at the group of guys and laughed happily at whatever they were talking about. She seemed like a nice person.

One of the guys was about the same height as the brunette boy. He was blonde and had thin, piercing dark blue eyes. He leaned on the girl's desk and smirked coolly. He had a very calm and cool atmosphere to him and Skyy knew right away he must have been popular with the girls. With that odd hair and eye colour, plus his thin physique and good features, he really must have been a hot topic. On further inspection his fingers were long and thin and somewhat delicate looking. It made Skyy wonder if he played any instruments.

The second guy, the last one, was the shortest of the entire group. This was a little funny to look at, at first glance. He was the perfect example of a model student in Skyy's mind. He had very short cropped and slightly spiky maroon coloured hair…it couldn't be natural. His eyes were a surprisingly deep striking black. Or they were just such a deep brown that they blended in with his pupils. But it was cooler to say they just looked black. He had an orange laptop bag slung over his shoulder and he clutched the strap lightly in one hand.

They looked like a well-rounded group of friends. Skyy looked down and sat silently in her seat, making no effort to leave. She waited as the group of friends eventually drifted out, and waited until all the other students eventually filtered out to go hang out somewhere and eat or buy their lunches. When they were gone she sighed lightly and leaned over, taking out her packed bento from her bag and lightly placing it in the middle of her desk. She looked at it for a moment, studying it as it sat in the glow of the sunlight. Finally she slipped out her chopsticks and unfolded the cloth around her lunch.

* * *

Izzy hummed lightly to himself as he wandered down the empty hallways. He was just heading to the computer room to spend the rest of the break studying the seeker digimon's groups and travelling patterns. He ate quickly so he'd have a majority of the lunch to study. Excited he picked up his pace slightly, eager to get to the computer room. He turned a corner a little too quickly and didn't see as a figure curled around the corner in the opposite direction. He jutted backwards but he had been moving too quick and he collided with the girl straight on.

They both grunted and fell back. Izzy landed hard on the ground and suddenly felt panicked for his laptop. He quickly grabbed his laptop bag and inspected his prized computer. Once he found it was unharmed he picked himself up and held out a hand to the disgruntled girl. He avoided looking at her directly, for she was in a compromising position and he didn't want to see anything he wasn't supposed to.

"I-I'm sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going," he apologized quickly. The girl looked at his hand, and then to him and sighed. She picked herself up, ignoring his hand and flattened down her skirt.

"Nah, it's no big deal, my head was down so it's partly my fault as well," she said simply. Izzy lifted his gaze to her face and cracked a small smile, for he recognized her.

"Ah! You're Miss Tsutsumi right? The new student?" he said in a friendly tone. Skyy paused.

"…Yes," she said. Izzy smiled widely.

"It's nice to formally meet you, my name is Izumi Izzy," he said. Skyy looked him up and down. He was the short boy that was with the brunette guy. Strange. From up close he didn't look old enough to be in middle school. Did he skip a grade?

"Oh, nice to meet you," she mumbled and made a move to leave until she spotted something on the ground. "Hey, did you drop this?" she asked and Izzy turned to see what she was talking about.

"Ah! Yes, I must've dropped it," he said when he noticed the white digivice had fallen on the ground. How could he drop something so important? He moved to pick up the device but Skyy was one step ahead of him. She stooped down and plucked the object from the floor. She held it up to her face and rose and eyebrow.

"What is this?" she wondered. Izzy opened his mouth to answer but then something unpredictable happened. As soon as Skyy laid the digivice in her palm the device began to glow. Skyy was shocked and almost dropped it, gasping. The glow turned into a bright light and spread, engulfing Skyy's hand, and then her arm. The light covered her whole body and Izzy just watched in shock, speechless.

Skyy became a glowing figure and sparkles rained down around her. Skyy was frozen solid, not knowing at all how to comprehend her situation. For a minute she couldn't see anything but a bright white light. She closed her eyes to protect them and clutched the object tightly in her fist. She glowed for a second longer before the light faded and the brightness she could see through her eyelids grew dark. The glow retreaded into the device and the screen's backlight turned on as the device activated. Skyy paused before peeking her eyes open. The first thing she saw was Izzy's shocked and dumb stricken face.

"Y-you…" he blubbered. Finally Skyy collected her thoughts and held up the device.

"Did that just happen! did you see that? What _**is**_ this?" Skyy said, holding the device like it was a bug. Izzy's mouth opened and closed, so he resembled a fish until he shook his head and dug for his phone. He pulled it out and pressed buttons quickly. Skyy looked at him like he was stupid. Who was he calling? Did he _**see**_ what just happened? She had been _**glowing**_!

She was about to scold him when he suddenly reached out and grabbed her hand. Skyy tensed up and before she knew it she was being dragged down the hallway after this strange maroon haired boy. Izzy bit his lip and finally the person he called answered on the other end.

"_**Tai**_! _**Quick**_ get to the computer room _**ASAP**_!" he said and shut the phone. He struggled but managed to shove it into his pocket and continued racing down the hallway. Skyy tried not to trip over her feet. She wanted to stop running but the boy's grip was fairly harsh. Though maybe he didn't realize. She should have been scolding him, telling him to let the hell go of her. She wanted to ask him what on earth the glowing object was and why it made her glow. And why on earth was he so eager to get to the computer lab! Skyy's brain was fuzzy with so many questions. She was running hard and breathing heavily which caused her to be un-able to choke out the questions as she ran. Besides, she thought even if she did start barking out questions, he wouldn't answer until he had gotten them to wherever he wanted to go first. So she just let herself be dragged

Once they had arrived at the computer lab they both buckled over, gasping for air. They both obviously didn't exercise that much if they had been so winded by just running down the hallways. Skyy gulped down a breath of air and straightened up.

"Just…_** what**_…happened to me?" she demanded. Izzy stood up and looked at her nervously.

"You might not believe me if I explained it to you," he said. If he outright explained she was a digidestined and there were such things as the Digital World, she might think he was crazy. She gave him a confused look and suddenly the screen door to the computer lab burst open.

"**Izzy**! What is it!" Tai burst in frantically. He paused when he saw the two standing there. Skyy's eyes widened. It was…the brunette haired boy from before. His gaze landed on her and he gave her an uncomprehendable look. One probably as if to say: 'what is she doing here?' Izzy took her wrist lightly and held it up to show the white digivice.

"It's her Tai! She's the one we're looking for!" he said excitedly. Tai paused. Skyy frowned and snatched her hand away. Izzy jumped in surprise.

"Hey, you can't just grab people like that," she said, frowning. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Are you sure? How do you know?" Tai asked, ignoring Skyy's question.

"As soon as she touched the digivice it responded to her and shone like a bright light," Izzy explained, forgetting to apologize for grabbing Skyy's wrist. Tai gave her another skeptical look. Skyy didn't like it.

"Hey, don't ignore me, now what are you talking about?" she asked more firmly. Tai shrugged and scratched his head.

"Do you know what digimon are?" Tai asked suddenly, looking at her. Skyy blinked a few times as she registered his question.

"Digi—what?"

"Digimon, Digital Monsters? The Digital World? Ringing any bells?" Tai asked again. Skyy's face only looked more confused. Tai sighed and scratched his head. "Well, if she really is the one, it might be easier to show her then to explain it to her," Tai said. Skyy stepped back slightly.

"S-show me what?" she asked warily. Just what were these two up to? Izzy nodded.

"Trust me, it'll work, she's the one," Izzy said, nodding surely. Skyy didn't like this. What was this, she's '**the one'** business. It was getting annoying. And she hated how they talked about her as if she wasn't even there!

Both of the boys took out some small objects and held them up. Skyy paused; they were the same little devices as the one she held now. Izzy turned and rushed to a computer. He turned it on and began typing out a bunch of codes. Soon a window popped up and a green light blinked. The window was black but as soon at the light beeped it slid open to reveal what looked like a grassy field. Tai stood behind Izzy and called Skyy over to the computer. She frowned stubbornly and stood her ground. Tai laughed.

"Hey, hey, we're not gonna bite, just come try something for us, we'll explain everything, I know your confused," Tai said warmly. Skyy studied his features cautiously. He sounded genuine…

She stepped forward but stopped at a comfortable distance from the boys, still unsure. Tai turned back to look at the screen.

"It's open right?" he asked. Izzy leaned back and nodded.

"Yup."

"We'll, then let's go," Tai said excitedly. Izzy cocked his head to the side.

"But we have school too…" he said. Tai shrugged.

"We can catch up tomorrow, we'll say something urgent came up and we had to leave," Tai said quickly. Izzy thought about it.

"But it's still not good…"

"Oh whatever, if we don't do this now she won't come here with us again," Tai urged. With that Izzy agreed and held up his device. He turned to face the thoroughly confused Skyy.

"Okay, all you have to do is hold up the device in your hand so the screen faces this one," he said. Skyy hesitated but then lifted the device to the screen. Tai and Izzy held theirs up as well and grinned.

"Alright, here we go!" Tai said excitedly, he put a hand on Skyy's shoulder and she flinched. Izzy glanced at her.

"If you feel like your falling, don't worry, just fall," he grinned and suddenly the screen shone bright white. Skyy gasped but before she could flee the light engulfed all of them and she felt herself being sucked forward.

It was the strangest feeling in the world. Her feet left the ground before she even realized it and it seemed more like she had started floating rather than was actually being sucked forward. Skyy's mind went blank as she realized she was floating in an odd white abyss. However it was only seconds until the loss of gravity that seemed to be holding her in place decided to come back and she began plummeting downwards. She was so shocked she couldn't even scream. She was falling down, the white abyss blended into black and she fell so far down she was engulfed in it.

Then she woke up.

Her eyes blinked a few times to focus properly and a bright sunlight temporarily blinded her. Skyy groaned loudly as she started to feel her body again and the compromising position she was in. Then the pain came and her body began to ache. She tried to get up but her arms were cramped and she ended up twitching until her hands came up by her face.

"Oh, are you okay? You didn't really land properly…but I guess it just takes getting used to," a voice mumbled. It sounded like…that brunette guy? What was his name…?

Skyy groggily looked upwards, pushing her shoulders up shakily with her hands.

"What?" she said in an unflattering voice. The male voice laughed and held out a hand.

"Here, take it," he said, still laughing and a large tan hand came into view. Skyy looked at it for a second before grabbing it and letting it haul her to her feet. She winced at the cramped feeling in all of her muscles and she wobbled slightly as the hand let go of her. She stood up straight and used a hand to cover the sunlight from her eyes. Strange, why was it so sunny? They were inside….

Skyy's eyes widened when she realized where she was. She stood on top of a grassy field that stretched into a strange looking forest. There were tall mountains that stretched for the sky in the distance and a small lake that stood behind her with some cliff faces outlining the other side. Skyy opened her mouth to say something but it ended up just staying open stupidly. She heard a chuckle and felt a hand on her shoulder, patting it lightly.

"So, what do you think?" the male voice from earlier asked. Skyy turned around to see who it was. Tai stood behind her with a goofy expression on his face. Skyy jumped and flinched her shoulder away from his touch.

"H-hey! Just what _**happened**_! Where _**are**_ we?" she said stepping away from him. Tai smiled and looked around him.

"We're in the Digital World, you can only access it these days by going through a portal in the computer," he sighed. Skyy looked at him as if he was crazy. What? _**Digital **_world?

"You've got to be joking, is this a trick?" she asked. He _**had**_ to be joking. There is no such thing as digital worlds, except for online computer games, were they in a computer game? If so why did it feel so real? Tai shook his head.

"How can this be a trick, we're here aren't we?" he teased. Skyy stared at him for a moment. Just then she raised her hand and pinched her cheek as hard as she could. She gasped and Tai jumped in surprise.

"Hey, hey, _**hey**_! Don't _**hurt**_ yourself you idiot!" he scolded her. Skyy looked at the ground with wide eyes.

"So…this isn't a dream…or a game…this is…real?" she murmured to herself. Tai sighed.

"That's what I said right?" he muttered. Skyy looked at him.

"But, we came through a computer! How is that possible?" she asked.

"We're not completely sure, no matter how many times I've researched it I can't come up with a logical and scienentifical solution for it," Izzy's voice answered and he walked up behind Tai. "We become digital data once we come here and our bodies become computer files, to put it simply, everything here is computer data, even the digimon."

"Digimon?" Skyy asked. Tai grinned.

"Yup! They're the creatures that inhabit the Digital World, you'll see one soon enough," he said excitedly. Skyy cocked her head. You mean there were creatures that lived here? Skyy's brain became fuzzy again. There were so many things happening to her right now that shouldn't be logically happening. None of this should exist!

Suddenly Izzy grinned and turned around.

"Hey, Tai, they've found us quickly again," he said and Tai turned around. Two small figures were approaching, one flying and one running. Both boys smiled and happily waved their arms around. When the two creatures got closer Skyy's jaw dropped. A huge bug and a dinosaur happily ran up and exchanged greetings with her two classmates.

"See, Tsutsumi these are the digimon, its short for digital monster," Izzy explained. The two monsters looked at her with surprised faces.

"Um, Izzy, who might this be?" the large bug spoke. Skyy flinched. They_** talked**_!

"She's the one we've been looking for Tentomon, the white digivice we found the other day reacted to her when she touched it, plus it was able to bring her here," Izzy explained. The bug, sort of, looked surprised.

"Oh how lucky! You've found her!" he said in a joyful voice. His face didn't really show much expression so it was mostly his voice that you had to listen to in order to figure out his emotions. Skyy thought she might faint. Talking monsters, talking monsters, talking _**monsters**_!

Just then the small device that she had been clutching this whole time began to beep wildly. Skyy was snapped from her shock and looked down at it. The screen was blinking and there was a small arrow pointing in the direction of the cliffs beyond the lake. She spun the device around and wherever it pointed the arrow remained pointing at the cliffs. Sort of like an electronic compass. Suddenly a shadow loomed over her and she jumped in surprise.

"Oh! You're getting a signal, should we follow it?" Tai said, observing her device. Skyy could feel his breath on her neck and she shrunk away. Izzy looked excited.

"A signal? I wonder what it could be? May as well check it out whilst were here," he said. Tai nodded and looked back down at Skyy.

"Well, you better get up, you're gonna have to tell us which way to go," he said cheerily and pulled her up once again with his hand. Skyy paused and looked down at the thing in her hand. She held it out to Tai.

"Why don't you just take it, it's yours anyway isn't it?" she said. First the thing made her glow, now it was transporting her to weird worlds, she didn't quite think she wanted to be holding it anymore. Tai shook his head and raised his hands.

"Oh no, no, no, this is yours. It reacted when you touched it so it's all yours, you keep it," he said. Skyy frowned.

"But I don't want it," she said. Tai shrugged.

"Too bad, it's yours, we're not taking it back," he said. Skyy frowned and grudginginly lowered her hand.

"Fine," she grumbled.

"So, where to? Where is it pointing to?" Tai asked her. Skyy glanced at the blinking screen again and then pointed behind her.

"Those cliffs," she said bordly. Tai grinned.

"Alright then let's go!" he cheered and grabbed her hand, dragging her along with him. Skyy frowned but let herself be dragged. Even if she didn't want to go, which she didn't, she would rather stay with these guys then wander around by herself. Especially if there were more weird bugs and dinosaurs lurking around.

It took a while but the group of five finally trekked around the lake to the cliffs. Using her new device as a compass Skyy told where the arrow was pointing and the group followed it. The two boys chatted most of the way, also with the creatures, digimon if she recalled correctly. But Skyy stayed silent. They would ask her questions but she wouldn't really answer them. She wanted to go back to school, she was missing her first day of classes and that couldn't be good on her record. Or even her home was good too, yeah, she wanted to go home. But she didn't seem to have the courage to ask them to take her back. They were so comfortable with their surroundings. It was weird, yet curious. A small part of her, she thought, wanted to see what was at the end of this beeping trail.

A strange pull had been tugging at her ever since the device started beeping. She ignored it but as the group moved forward, it got stronger. Skyy didn't know if she liked it or not. She tried not to think about it but she followed the two boy's orders and kept walking forward anyway. When the beeping arrow finally stopped and disappeared, Skyy found herself standing at the base of a large cliff face with a very solid looking rock stretching way up into the sky.

The cliff was covered in vines and all the vegetation around it was very overgrown. Tentomon and Agumon had to hack most of it away for them to get through. This was obviously an area no one ever visited. Izzy rested his hand on his chin.

"Wow, I've never seen surroundings like this before," he said staring at the mass of vines in awe. Tai made a confused face. He leaned over Skyy's shoulder to look at her device.

"What does your digivice say? Is it still pointing anywhere?" he asked. Skyy looked at it. The screen was dark and the arrow had faded away and stopped beeping. She shook her head.

"No, it stopped once we got here," she said. Tai bit his lips and folded his arms.

"Darn,"

"Hey, now that we know there's nothing here, can we go back now?" Skyy asked shyly. Tai shook his head furiously.

"No way! That signal was leading somewhere; we just have to find it. Whatever was setting it off must be around here somewhere…" Tai muttered and began searching around all the bushes. "Agumon! Look over there," Tai said and the yellow dinosaur digimon nodded and trailed off to look in some more bushes. Izzy was walking up and down the side of the cliff, the bug buzzing behind him wherever he walked. They chatted about something but Skyy couldn't hear once they'd gotten farther away. She looked around and sighed. She glanced at the vines and frowned suspiciously.

"Maybe it's behind these vines?" she suggested. Tai perked up.

"Oh yeah! Let's try that!" he said excitedly and stumbled his way over to the vines. He began pulling them off in big chunks and they fell limply to the ground. Skyy stepped out of the way so the vines wouldn't touch her. When Tai broke through to the rock he stopped.

"Whoa," he mumbled. Curious, Skyy peeked around him and raised her eyebrows. Izzy wandered back to see what they'd found and smiled excitedly. On the rock of the cliff face there was a carved handprint with curly swirly carvings encompassing it in a circle that looked sort of like a donut with three curved triangles coming out of it, one at the top and two at the bottom. It looked like a symbol of some sort but Skyy had never seen it before. Tai cocked his head to the side.

"Hey, doesn't it kind of look like a crest Izzy?" he asked. The maroon haired boy nodded.

"Yeah, but what crest I wonder?" he said and stroked the curvy carvings curiously. Tai leaned back and grinned at Skyy.

"Well, put your hand to it, maybe it'll open a secret door or something?" he said. Skyy looked from him to the hand print and laughed.

"Um, no, I don't think so, you guys can go right ahead," she said and stepped back. She had enough of weird things happening today. Tai shrugged.

"Okaaay, but I don't think it'll work," he said and raised his hand. He pressed his palm and fingers into the carving and waited. All five stood silent, but nothing happened. Tai lowered his hand.

"Iz, you try," he said. Izzy raised his hand to the plate. Again they waited. And again nothing happened. They both turned and looked at Skyy. "See? You do it," Tai said. Skyy hesitated but saw there was no getting out of it. She sighed in annoyance and raised her hand. She pressed it into the carvings and bit her lip.

The carving immediately began to glow bright white and the cliff shook slightly. They all froze and didn't move. The shaking stopped quickly and then the rock underneath Skyy's hand evaporated. It disappeared and in its place there was a long dark tunnel leading into the cliff. Skyy's mouth dropped and Tai grinned.

"See, that wasn't so bad," he said and sauntered past her into the tunnel. Agumon ran after him quickly. Izzy patted Skyy's back.

"C'mon, let's go," he said smiling. Skyy lowered her hand and followed behind Izzy, keeping her mouth shut tight. The group walked further into the tunnel and the sounds of their shoes echoed against the walls. It was a short walk before the tunnel opened up into a bigger room. There were more carvings resembling the one outside carved all over the walls and more vines creeping down from the ceilings. There were a few holes in the ceiling and rays of light streamed down into the room, giving it a very fantasy like feel. For the first time Skyy crept closer to Tai, not wanting to touch anything.

"It looks a lot like that temple from the other day, but smaller," Tai said, looking all around. Izzy nodded.

"Yeah, very similar," he murmured. In the middle of the room was a large stone-carved statue. It was of a huge, intricate dragon with jeweled eyes and a long snake like body with four big clawed legs that protruded out. It sat eerily there, like it would come alive at any second, and it stared right at them. Suddenly the bug digimon jumped around.

"Izzy! I know who this is!" Tentomon exclaimed excitedly. Izzy looked over.

"You do?"

"Yeah! This statue is of the Legendary Digimon of Life!" Tentomon explained. Izzy's eyebrows rose and he looked back at the statue.

"No way…" he mumbled in shock. "I thought there were only four great Dragon Digimon?"

"Mm, that's is true but the Legendary Digimon of Life, although it is a dragon digimon, is said to be legendary…as in non-existent. So it doesn't count" Tentomon said simply.

"Hey, Skyy? What are you doing?" Tai suddenly asked. Izzy looked over to see what he was talking about. Unknown to the both of them Skyy had already started walking up closer to the statue with a glazed over look in her eyes.

It was odd. As soon as she had seen the statue, the pull she felt from before had gotten a lot stronger. Before she had realized it she was walking up to it. It was like her legs had a mind of their own. She didn't know what to think and as soon as she stood at the base of the statue a weird sensation flowed over her. She raised her arm up without realizing and raised the digivice in her hand up to the dragon's face. The two boys and their digimon watched her silently.

The statue began to glow bright white and Skyy squinted her eyes to shield them. The entire statue became a glowing form. It floated up from its base and began to shift around radically. It bended and compressed and shape shifted until it was no longer dragon shaped. It became smaller and floated down towards Skyy. It made its way to Skyy's feet and once it touched the ground the light around it blew away and in its place it left a small oddly shaped creature. Skyy stared at it with a slack mouth and wide eyes.

The creature itself was small, about the size of a cat. Its body actually looked like a cross between a cat and a fox. Its paws were small and soft looking though, like a cat's. But its tail was long and bushy, like a fox's. Its head was round and had large flat ears that looked like diamonds, and were topped with black coloured baubles on the tips. Its eyes were large and a dazzling turquoise colour. There was two small fangs protruding from its cute mouth and around its neck was sort of a clown collar that was purple with black baubles on the tips that resembled the ones on the end of the creature's ears. Its fur was white all over except for little orange markings on the end of its tail, reaching from its paws to its elbows, and covering its ears. There was also an orange triangle marking its forehead that pointed upwards.

The creature shook herself lightly and stretched like a cat, yawning and showing off her sharp canine-like teeth. She straightened up and scratched the back of her ear with her back paw. The group watched her silently in wonder. Finally the creature seemed to notice their presence and it immediately looked up at Skyy. Its eyes sparkled and its mouth turned into a wide grin.

"Hi! My name is Pleomon! I'm so glad to finally meet you Skyy!" it squeaked in a cute, cheerful, female voice.

* * *

**Second chapter done :3**

**Hoped you like it! _ **

**If you want to know what Pleomon looks like, go to my profile and you will find a link there that leads to a drawing I did of her :)**

**Please review! I love hearing your questions, comments and concerns ;0**


	3. Beautiful

Digimon Adventure: Connections

Chapter 3: Beautiful

Skyy's mouth hung open in shock. She stared down at the curious looking digimon and her voice was lost in her throat. The cute little digimon, who had introduced herself has Pleomon, cocked her head to the side.

"Skyy? Are you okay?" she asked. Skyy blinked and few times and finally found her voice.

"Oh my god it's a Pokémon," she blubbered. Tai almost laughed but he held it in, which turned it into a weird snorting sound. Izzy elbowed him in the side, glaring. Pleomon furrowed her eyebrows.

"Not Pokémon! My name is Pleomon," she corrected, and then shrugged, "never mind, I'm your partner Skyy, we're gonna be partners together!" Pleomon said happily. Just then the cave started to shudder and Skyy wobbled on her feet. Tai gritted his teeth and looked up at the shaky ceiling. Bits of rock had already started to fall from above.

"C'mon, we gotta get out of here!" Tai yelled and they all made a break for the exit. Pleomon pounced along behind Skyy, making sure she stayed ahead of her. All six made it out right as the door to the cave closed up again and the rock with the hand carving on it returned to its place. Skyy noticed though that as soon as the rock re-materialized, the swirly carvings and the handprint disintegrated from the rock and it became flat and smooth. Suddenly a deep thunderous laughter ripped through the sky and shook Skyy to her very bones.

They all looked up and the sky had become twisted and dark. Purple and black clouds streaked the once perfect blue and painted the entire landscape into darkness. The bright sunny, perfect day from a while ago was gone and instead had been stained with a cloudy, stormy evil. The laugh from before roared like thunder in the clouds and echoed and reverberated through all of them. Skyy could feel the pulse of the laugh in her chest like you would feel a loud bass beat through speakers.

"**Fools!"** the voice boomed. **"Have the digidestined really become so stupid that they would deliver the exact thing I'm looking for right to my feet?"**

"W-what?" Tai muttered, though his voice seemed fogged over compared to the evil voice ringing from the heavens. Pleomon's eyes widened.

"That voice…!"

"**Skyy Tsutsumi, the newest digidestined…there is a great power within you**," the voice spoke. Skyy froze. What? Her? A great power? The voice chuckled before speaking again. "**It is the exactly the power I want, no, I need**."

"W-what power?" Skyy mumbled. She had never felt more frozen. Her body refused to move and the voice clutched at her chest like it was gripping her insides and stopping her from breathing properly. Were the other two feeling the same way?

"**You may have it with you right now, but beware; I will stop at nothing to take it from you. I will hurt anyone who gets in my way. Your friends, your family, even your little digimon partner…I will kill them all until your power belongs to me**," the voice threatened loudly. Then another rumbling laughter ripped through their eardrums like a loud piercing thunder and then faded away. Along with the voice, the clouds and darkness started to part and the sun slowly returned, brightening up the scenery. The group was stunned silent for a moment. Tai gritted his teeth and clenched his digivice.

"I think we need to be heading back now," he said sternly. Izzy nodded and both started trekking back through the overgrown foliage. Skyy hesitated before following them, Pleomon trotting loyally by her side the whole way. Skyy looked at the ground and hugged herself. The two boys walked in front of her, glancing back every now and then but keeping their conversations to themselves. When they finally reached back to where they first landed Skyy saw there was a computer monitor sticking halfway out of the ground. It must've been what they came through to get here, but she didn't remember seeing it before. The two boys said goodbye to their digimon and Skyy shyly waved goodbye to Pleomon and the three used their digivices to zip back through the portal.

This time she landed more safely in the computer room. It was already late and outside the sun was setting. The school was empty and quiet and Skyy figured that school had ended quite a while ago. Skyy hugged herself tighter and sucked in a breath. Tai sighed loudly and collapsed onto the window sill beside the computers. He rubbed his face in his hands before peeking from behind his fingers.

"Well….that wasn't quite how I was expecting it to go," he muttered from beneath his palms. Izzy sat down in the computer chair and turned off the computer they had just come through. He glanced at Skyy.

"So…I guess we should explain a little, you might still be confused," he said. Skyy bit her lip before talking.

"Just…just what was that thing? That voice? And that little white and orange thing that spoke to me?" Skyy asked. Tai laughed.

"Well, it might be easier to start from the beginning, Izzy?" Tai said, lowering his hands and looking at Izzy with a grin. Izzy nodded and took a deep breath. Skyy sat down in a nearby chair. She felt this was going to be a long conversation.

"About two years ago, when I was 10 and Tai here was 11, two of us and five others all went to the same summer camp," Izzy began. "When we were there, a portal to the Digital World opened up in the sky and rained down these digivices," Izzy held up his digivice. Skyy looked at her own, seeing that they were the same.

"We each got one and after we got them we were all transported to the Digital World, only the seven of us," Izzy said. Skyy looked up at him.

"Who are the others?" she asked.

"Sora Takenouchi and Matt Ishida, they're in our class. Joe Kido, he's a year older than us, and a sophomore at another middle school. Mimi Tachikawa, she moved to New York. And TK Takaishi, he's Matt's little brother," Tai filled in. Skyy immediately remembered the ginger haired girl and the blonde boy. Was he talking about those two?

"Yes, anyway, we were transported there and once we got there we were each paired up with a digimon partner, you met both of ours today," Izzy started again.

"You mean the big bug and the dinosaur?" Skyy asked. Tai chuckled.

"Yeah, the dinosaur is Agumon, he's my partner," Tai grinned.

"And Tentomon, is mine," Izzy filled in.

"Why did you get partners? And why were you sent there in the first place?" Skyy asked. This was actually a little interesting. To think something like this had actually happened. And she was in no position to not believe them after what just happened.

"We were all sent there and paired up because we were chosen to defend the Digital World against the darkness. We are the digidestined. You see the Digital World and our world are interconnected. When one is un-balanced the other in turn is affected. Four years ago a darkness threatened the Digital World so we seven were transported there to defeat it," Izzy went on. Tai nodded.

"Yeah, and later on my little sister Kari joined as well, we had difficulties with her digivice, plus she had a cold so it was a while later before she could join us," Tai said. Skyy listened quietly.

"And then we all joined forces and together we made our digimon digivolve to higher and stronger levels and we defeated the threatening darkness once and for all," Izzy finished happily. Skyy snorted.

"Doesn't seem that way to me, unless you call that big dark evil cloud one of the good guys," Skyy said sarcastically. Tai scratched the back of his head nervously.

"See that's the problem, we have a new enemy that's just appeared and he's a little tricky to defeat," Tai said. Skyy became quiet and hugged her knees to her chest. She shivered as she remembered the booming voice that had rained down upon them earlier in the Digital World. It was so…frightening to her.

"So why… why am I here? Why did you bring me to the Digital World…and why does…that thing want me?" Skyy asked in a quiet voice. Izzy ran a hand through his short hair.

"To be honest we don't know what that thing is, we've never actually even seen its true form. The first time we've ever encountered it was today. But from what we know this enemy wants a power that you seem to possess. You probably don't know it though. But not only that, this power that you and your partner, Pleomon, have is the only thing that can help us defeat this enemy. Without you we can't do a thing to stop it," Izzy said. Skyy flinched. Pleomon. That creature was her partner? She had a digimon partner like these other boys?

"So…will you help us? Help us defeat this evil digimon?" Tai asked carefully. Skyy sat in silence and the boys anticipated her answer. A million things ran through her mind as she sat. So many questions, so many things. Why did all of this happen to her? Why couldn't it have happened to someone else? Skyy's mind flashed through everything that had happened to her today, everything she saw, and everyone she'd met. Then her mind flashed to that creature, Pleomon. She froze.

She couldn't do it.

"No."

"What? Why not? You're a chosen digidestined, like us!" Izzy said, standing up from his chair. Skyy uncurled her legs and stood up.

"I'm sorry, but I can't…I…I don't want to help you," she said curtly and made a move to leave. Tai whipped up and grabbed her shoulder.

"Hey! I'm sorry but I don't quite understand you here," he said. Skyy tried to nudge her shoulder away but Tai gripped tighter.

"I said I didn't want t—"

"It's not like we're asking you to do something horrible here, so why not is what I want to know," Tai asked, trying to soften his voice a little. He didn't want to seem like he was pressuring her to do anything. Skyy looked down.

"I...I can't get into something like this right now," she said. Tai and Izzy gave each other confused looks. Tai gritted his teeth.

"But that world is in danger! That darkness is getting stronger everyday and all those digimon that live there are getting tortured and hurt all the time because of the seekers! That thing won't stop until it gets what it wants!" Tai said, snapping to his anger. Skyy didn't bother asking him what a seeker was and lurched her shoulder from Tai's grip and he stumbled back in surprise.

"I said I'm _**sorry**_! I don't want any part of this though so please _**stop**_ asking me!" Skyy yelled and quickly bolted for the door before they could try and persuade her otherwise. She disappeared down the darkening hallways, leaving two shocked and down-hearted boys in her wake.

Skyy ran as fast as she could for as long as she could. School was over and the entire school was empty and bathed in the glow of the setting sun. She didn't know why she was running; she was perfectly capable of walking instead. But the need to get away seemed to control her legs more than her need to simply walk. She ran until she reached her apartment complex. She heaved a great gasp of air and fanned her tired face. Skyy's forehead was soaked with sweat and the humid, damp air wasn't helping. She calmed her breathing as she rode up the elevator and she quickly darted past the apartment doors until she reached her own. She unlocked the door and slipped inside, grateful for the barrage of air conditioning that was left on even when everyone was out.

She entered the peaceful stillness of her home and was greeted with a comfortable, cold silence. Though somehow it didn't seem comfortable at all. It was foggy and old and brought back far too many memories. Her parents weren't home.

Skyy silently padded into her house and creaked open the door to her bedroom. She walked across the small room and collapsed onto her soft, very familiar bed. Skyy grabbed her comforter in one hand and rolled over, bringing the sheets with her so she ended up like a cocoon. She breathed in her own scent and relaxed.

_Pleomon._

Skyy squeezed her eyes shut.

_Pleomon._

She shut them tighter.

_Pleomon._

Skyy gasped and lurched forward, pulling the sheets down to her hips. She sighed. Why couldn't she forget about that weird digimon? She felt a lump in her skirt pocket and dug her hand in to find out what it was. She pulled out the white digivice and stared at it. This thing…had started everything it seemed.

It was scary.

Not the Digital World itself, but everything that came with it. As soon as she had met Pleomon, as soon as she saw that dragon statue and it had turned into the cute ball of fluff, it scared her. That tug, that pull that had been nagging at her since she got there, it scared her. That…_**connection**_.

It twisted and coiled inside her. The promise she, now long ago, made to herself. It controlled all of her thoughts and all of her actions and she couldn't abandon it now. This thing, this adventure that was knocking on her door, it was too big. Too deep for her to handle. She thought she could handle anything. She'd stay the way she'd promised. But could she? She'd have to.

_Pleomon._

Yet that creature would not leave her thoughts. That thing, the thing that rose between them like electricity the moment she spoke out. The thing she'd feared the most was gripping her down, making her unable to forget. Pleomon stayed in her thoughts and Skyy tried willing herself not to care. She didn't want to care. She'd told herself she didn't care. But, the more Pleomon ruled her thoughts…the more she seemed to be caring.

Skyy bit her lip. His words rung out in her head, overriding her thoughts. _'that world is in danger! That darkness is getting stronger everyday and all those digimon that live there are getting tortured and hurt all the time!'_

Skyy's chest tightened. Pleomon? Would she be hurt? Would she get hurt and tortured if she stayed there? If that evil remained…what would happen to Pleomon? Skyy gripped the sheets in between her thin fingers.

"What if…what if I go back? Just once…..just once…to see how she's doing?" Skyy whispered to herself. Her heart told her to go but her head screamed not to. Her promise. She had to remember her promise.

But….

"I can always forget later….just once, I'll go just once, and then never again. I'll forget," Skyy told herself. Suddenly she remembered how she'd stormed out on the two boys and she groaned. She blushed in embarrassment. She'd have to go to them for help, but after she threw a tantrum like that…would they just laugh at her?

Skyy chewed on her bottom lip and pulled at her fingers nervously. She'd have to risk it. It would be embarrassing. But after, she'd never have to see them again. This was the last time.

Skyy clenched her fist in determination. Yeah! This was the last time.

Then never again.

* * *

Tai blinked stupidly and stared down at the small blonde blushing in embarrassment under his stunned gaze. Students bustled by the in the hallway glancing at them as they walked by before returning to their morning conversations.

"You…want to what?" he blubbered. Skyy looked away, pouting angrily.

"I asked if you could take me back, to that place….the Digital World, just to see if Pleomon's okay," Skyy said quietly. Tai paused before a huge grin spread across his lips. He laughed and raised a hand to ruffle Skyy's hair. Skyy jumped and tried to move from under his grip but his arm was too long and his hand just followed her head.

"Sooo, you want to go back now, right Skyy?" Tai teased. Skyy frowned.

"Hey…you can't call me by my first name…when you haven't even introduced yourself to me yet," Skyy grumbled. Tai stopped ruffling her hair and his eyebrows rose.

"What? Seriously? I never introduced myself?" he asked in awe. Skyy folded her arms across her waist.

"No, last time you just barged in the room and then ignored me and then we went to the Digital World, Izumi was the only one that introduced himself properly," Skyy said. Tai cocked his head thoughtfully.

"Ah, I guess that's right… well, I'm Tai Kamiya! It's nice to meet you Skyy!" Tai said cheekily. Skyy frowned.

"I said not to call me that…" she muttered, glaring at him. Tai shrugged.

"But it's more casual that way," he said nonchalantly. Skyy looked at the floor. Tai rested his hands behind his head and sighed. "Well if you want to go to the Digital World it'll have to wait until after school, I can't afford to miss another half a day of classes and I'm sure a new student like you can't either," Tai said. Skyy rolled her eyes.

"And whose fault was it I missed those classes yesterday," she said sarcastically. Tai chuckled.

"True, true, so I'll see you after classes end then," Tai smiled. "Hey, want to come meet my friends? You already know Izzy," Tai offered. Skyy shook her head.

"No…maybe…some other time," she said and turned to leave. Tai followed her with his eyes and shrugged to himself before turning and jogging off to find his friends.

The rest of the day seemed to drag on terribly long. Skyy found herself tapping her pencil against her notebook impatiently all during classes and she couldn't seem to concentrate. The little digimon, Pleomon wouldn't leave her thoughts and the urge to see her again was overwhelming. You wouldn't have guessed that she'd just met her for a short while only yesterday. Skyy counted down the bells until the teacher finally packed up her books and dismissed the class. Tai scooted out from his chair behind her and curled around her chair until he was standing over her. He grinned and leaned on her desk.

"Are you ready? You still want to go right?" he asked. Skyy stood up a little too eagerly.

"Yes!" she breathed. She quickly packed up her school things and followed after him. He waved goodbye to his friends and Skyy peeked over at them as they walked past. The blonde boy and the ginger haired girl gave her curious looks and Izzy looked at her with a surprised expression. But she quickly looked away and stayed close to Tai's back, following him out of the classroom and down the halls to the computer lab.

When they got to the computer lab they sighed in relief, it was empty. Tai quickly walked over to the computer they used yesterday and turned it on.

"I had Izzy set up the gate for me at lunch, and then he just turned off the monitor so it looked like it was shut off," Tai explained and as the screen slowly turned on the window with the gate to the Digital World appeared. Skyy watched him silently until he was ready and he took out his digivice.

"You ready?" he grinned. Skyy nodded and clutched her own digivice. They both held them up and the familiar feeling of drifting through the computer portal washed over them. Skyy landed a little less harshly this time, but still landed rather hardly on her hands and knees. She slumped back with a gasp and inspected the new scrapes on her hands. Frowning, she picked herself up and brushed off the twigs from her uniform. She looked around and her eyebrows rose.

Instead of the grassy field they had come out in last time, this time they'd transported to the middle of a strange looking forest. The warm digital sun shone down and the shadows of the leaves danced on her face. Skyy smiled lightly.

"Hmm…so, I guess we should get looking for Pleomon?" Tai wondered, scratching the back of his head. Skyy looked at him with a confused expression.

"Isn't there some way you can call them? We don't have to go looking for her do we?" Skyy asked, inwardly groaning at the thought of scowering this entire Digital World for Pleomon. Tai shrugged and chuckled.

"Not really, usually they just kind of know when we're coming and they show up on their own…but I'm sure we'll find her soon," Tai said optimistically. Skyy frowned. Great.

Just then the loud cracking came from above and suddenly a mix between a growl and a screech echoed from the branches, making both teens jump out of their skin.

A white blur shot down from the trees and landed with a hard thump onto Skyy's shoulders. Skyy yelped out in surprise and the weight dragged her down to the forest floor with a loud _**fwump**_. Just then the lump on her back let out a cute little laugh and she could feel it walking up her back and leaning onto her head. Skyy cracked her eyes open and a round white head with curious turquoise eyes looked back at her. Pleomon grinned.

"I found youuu!" she sang. Skyy grunted and lifted herself up. Pleomon wobbled and quickly slid over Skyy's shoulder to land comfortably in to her arms. Skyy looked down at her and held the digimon at arm's length. Pleomon grinned mischievously. Skyy frowned.

"Don't do that," she said. Pleomon stuck out a pink tongue.

"But it's fun," she sang, smiling. Skyy cracked a smile.

"You seem okay…" Skyy mumbled. Pleomon waved a paw at her.

"_**Please**_, I can take care of myself," she said proudly. Skyy smiled and hugged her, taking the digimon by surprise.

"As long as you're okay," Skyy mumbled quietly. Pleomon smiled and quickly scooched herself up onto Skyy's shoulders, balancing herself on either side. She nuzzled her face into Skyy's temple.

"As long as Skyy is here, I'm great!" she laughed. Skyy smiled and patted the small digimon's head lightly. Suddenly Tai huffed and crossed his arms.

"Oh so Pleomon can call you by your first name but I can't?" he grumbled. Skyy looked at him, for a moment forgetting he was even there.

"Of course, she's special…you forgot to introduce yourself, she introduced herself right away," Skyy said simply. Pleomon laughed impishly and Tai frowned.

"You gotta keep bringing that up don't you," Tai hissed. Skyy shrugged and began playing with Pleomon's bushy tail that wrapped around her shoulders. Tai looked around bordly and stopped, seeming to recognize something. Then he grinned. "Hey, I wanna show you something, c'mon," he said suddenly and started walking off to one direction. Skyy perked up.

"What? Show me what?" she asked, standing still. Tai waved his hand for her to follow.

"Just come on!" he urged excitedly. Skyy cocked her head to the side and glanced at Pleomon. She shrugged and Skyy sighed. She walked forwards, keeping close to Tai; she didn't want to get lost. She looked around and all the bushes and trees looked the same.

"Hey, how do you know your way around here so well? Everything looks the same," Skyy mumbled. Tai laughed.

"Well when you've been coming to this place as long as I have, you get used to everything, besides there are some things that are different. See? There's a vending machine just over there," Tai said lazily pointing to one direction. Skyy looked and saw an only vending machine sticking out from behind some trees.

"Wha!"

Tai laughed. "yeah, there's some random stuff now and then."

They kept walking until they finally came to the edge of the forest and wandered out, the forest edge was at the bottom of a hill and Tai bounded up the grassy hill excitedly. He beckoned Skyy up with his hand.

"C'mon, it's just up here, come see!" he said smiling. Skyy made her way up the hill and shielded her eyes as the sun stung them when she reached the top. She blocked the sun and when the scenery came into view she gasped.

For miles and miles there stretched a large bright green grassy field and as the wind blew the long grass stems danced around in different patterns. Long flowers of all different colours and assortments that Skyy had never seen before dotted the fields in large clumps and spread out to connect to one another. Past the field there was sharp, rocky, mountains that disappeared into the white puffy clouds and seemed hazed over in the distance. The sun shone down in rays through the clouds as their shadows flew over the field. Skyy stared in wonder.

"Oh…wow," she breathed. Tai grinned triumphantly.

"Girls seem to like this stuff, it's pretty huh?" Tai said. Skyy nodded.

"It's beautiful," she said. Tai glanced at her face and was genuinely surprised to see a soft expression there. He blushed lightly.

"Yeah…" was all he could say. They stood there for a moment before Tai wandered down a bit further down the hill. Skyy took a moment to notice and wandered down after him. Tai flumped onto the ground and stretched out his legs, leaning back on his hands. Skyy hesitated before crouching down beside him with her knees up against her chest, making sure she held up her skirt. Pleomon jumped down from Skyy's shoulders and sat beside her with her big tail curled around her legs. All three sat silently like that for a long time, just enjoying the scenery. Eventually Agumon turned up and silently placed himself next to Tai.

At one point there was some baby digimon that wandered down in the flowers and Skyy watched them play happily. They danced around the flowers and gave the humans curious looks before darting off further into the flowers were they could no longer be seen. Skyy didn't know how long she sat there. Just staring. It was the most beautiful thing she thought she'd ever seen. She was always a sucker for beautiful scenery, or beautiful anything. At one point Tai poked her cheek lightly with his finger, snapping Skyy out of her long time daze. He chuckled.

"You're so zoned out," he teased. Skyy rubbed her cheek.

"Well, you can't get scenery like this in Tokyo," she sighed. Tai nodded.

"Yeah, well maybe if you went out to the country," he suggested. Skyy shook her head lightly and hugged her knees tighter.

"Nah, even then, you wouldn't get something like this," she said smiling. Tai grinned.

"You like it that much?" he asked. Skyy tilted her head.

"It's inspiring, that's all, I'd like to soak up as much of it as I can," she replied. "but, the city has it's beauties too, like when the sun sets on the harbor and you can see the silhouette of the ferries wheel against the water," Skyy explained. Tai watched her as she spoke. He didn't really get it, not much one for scenery and stuff like that. He did appreciate a good clean view of an untouched soccer field in the wee hours of the morning though. He smiled.

"If you put it that way I guess it's nice to look at too," Tai said. Skyy frowned and hit him lightly on the shoulder.

"What are you talking about! It's _**beautiful**_!" Skyy said. Tai laughed and ruffled her hair. Skyy frowned and put her hands on head. Just then Tai frowned and rested his cheek on his hand.

"Though…it's too bad y'know? About this place," he began. Skyy looked at him curiously. "It's all threatened by that evil digimon we heard yesterday," Tai said seriously. Skyy looked at the ground, hiding her face through a curtain of blonde hair. "And only…you can help us," Tai murmured, quieting down. He glanced sideways at Skyy, trying to use her newfound inspiration to persuade her to help them. She bit her lip. They became silent for a moment until Skyy finally opened her mouth to speak.

"If I did fight…." She began, Tai perked up. "Would…would I even be strong enough?" she asked in a shaky voice. Pleomon frowned and rubbed her cheek against Skyy's arm. "Would I be able to do it?" when she saw Tai's wide eyes she quickly looked away "I-it's just a hypothetical question!" she said quickly. Tai grinned boyishly.

"When I first came here, I was only 11 but, I was also really stupid and unsure about a lot of things," he began. "actually, I still am kinda like that" he laughed, "but when I was paired with Agumon, we had an instant connection, and when we fought together, we both fought with all our strength and all our courage. You see, we all have these crests that personify our best attribute and we rely on those crests and our strengths to beat our enemies," Tai explained, Agumon nodded proudly from beside him. Skyy looked up at him.

"What is your best attribute?" she asked. Tai grinned proudly.

"Mine's courage!" he said. Skyy tilted her head.

"Does that mean I have one too?" she asked. Tai hmm'd.

"Well, when we first got your digivice, we were told that it belonged to that who holds life in their hands," Tai wondered, Skyy flinched and lowered her head. "So maybe your crest has something to do with life or being alive?" Skyy fell silent. Tai grinned, not noticing her change in demeanor. "So, as long as you believe in your crest like I did, you'll be fine!" Tai finished. Skyy shot up to her feet and clenched her fists, taking Pleomon, Tai and Agumon by surprise.

"Wha—?" Tai started.

"There's no way that's possible," Skyy muttered. Before Tai could ask why though the ground started to rumble and they both dropped their conversation. The rumbling got louder and the ground shook dramatically. Skyy stumbled back down to her feet but Tai managed to get up and stand defensively with Agumon at his side. The sound of branches and wood cracking split through the air and the group spun around and darted up the hill. Skyy gasped when they reached the top.

A seeker digimon was wrestling its way through the trees and was slicing them away with its big scythe. They must've all looked the same or this was the same one Tai and the others confronted a few days ago. Tai gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. The evil digimon spotted them and started to crash through the trees even faster to get to them. Tai grabbed Skyy's arm.

"C'mon, we gotta go!" he said frantically and dragged her back down the hill. Skyy's eyes widened in shock.

"What! You're not going to fight that thing! Its evil isn't it?" Skyy asked. Tai bit his lip and growled angrily.

"I wish we could and I hate running away from fights, but there is no way to beat these guys, we attack them but nothing happens!" Tai explained as they reached the bottom of the hill and began tearing through the grass and flowers. The seeker digimon crashed over the hill and caught up with them it two gigantic steps. Its steps shook the ground so much that Tai lost his footing and crashed to the ground, dragging Skyy with him. They landed with a grunt and quickly rolled over to see the dark digimon looming over them with greedy looking eyes.

Skyy then noticed the flowers and grass the digimon touched seemed to wither and die and turn nasty shades of brown and grey. Behind the digimon the beautiful trees of the forest were broken and splintered and lying everywhere in destroyed heaps. Anger boiled up in Skyy's chest and she flew to her feet. Hands clenched and teeth grinding together she stomped right up to the dark digimon and raised her fist to it.

"Hey, you bastard! Just look what you've done to this place! How dare you I oughta teach you a freaking lesson you bastard!" Skyy screamed at the top of her lungs whilst shaking her fist in what was probably supposed to be a threatening way. Tai stared at her stupidly.

The seeker digimon made a gross laughing sound that sounded like it was gurgling glass. The digimon raised its scythe and Skyy stopped her swears and froze. Tai leapt up and grabbed her waist, pulling her out of the way just as the scythe blade swung down and missed them by inches. Skyy fell onto Tai's chest and the wind flew out of his lungs, causing him to cough afterwards. The seeker digimon was about to attack them again but before he could a white blur pounced past them and leapt up at the digimon's face. Skyy gasped when she noticed it was Pleomon.

"Pleo—!" she yelled but Pleomon growled loudly and scratched at the digimon's face with her claws as harshly as she could. The seeker grunted and swatted her away with his hand like she was simply a fly. Pleomon flew to the ground like a bullet and Skyy winced at the sound her body made when it slammed into the earth. Just then Agumon leapt up as well and blew a huge ball of fire from his throat and it hit right at the seekers chest. But once again the digimon swatted Agumon away and the dinosaur landed just as harshly into the ground.

Tai quickly removed himself from under Skyy and grabbed her arms to hoist her up. She cried out in pain once she put pressure on her foot and crumpled back to the ground. There was a gnarly big purple bruise already flowering on her ankle. Just great. It must have happened when she had fallen with Tai. Tai bit his lip and frantically tried to get her onto her feet but a shadow bathed them in darkness. They both looked up and froze. The seeker had its scythe ready and aimed and its eyes gleamed menacingly. Skyy clutched at Tai's sleeve helplessly and winced as the blade swung down over them.

Skyy prepared to feel the blade, but when she didn't here eyes snapped open and her mouth hung open in awe. Just over them a huge fox-like digimon about half the size of the seeker held the blade firmly in its massive jaws and growled protectively.

The digimon had and thin, but muscular fox-like body that was white. Its face was long and thin and its snout was almost dog shaped. It had a set of saber teeth, two long ones that protruded from its lips and pointed down past its chin. On its forehead was a large horn that looked like a metal blade that pierced through the skin. Its ears were large and perked up. They looked like normal fox ears but slightly larger and also had two smaller ear flaps just below each ear so it gave the illusion that there was four ears. Covering its eyes was a leathery black mask that had slits that showed two gleaming, dark, turquoise eyes. On each of the digimon's paws was leathery bracelets that resembled cuffs and out of each cuff a fiery flame billowed. The digimon didn't seem to have a physical tail, rather that fire spewing from its back and just from its chin down under its belly and flowed behind it like a large fox tail. The whole digimon was covered in white fur except for orange markings that started at its nose and ended just under its belly like someone had painted only its top half orange.

The new fox digimon growled and spat out the scythe blade and the seeker stepped backwards.

"You will _**not**_ hurt my Skyy!" the digimon growled in a deep, older female voice. Skyy's eyes widened.

"…Pleomon?" she whispered to herself. The fox digimon glanced back at Skyy.

"My name is Hotarumon," she growled and turned back to face the seeker. Skyy stared in awe. Hotarumon was fairly big. Her head, not including her horn, reached probably seven and a half feet tall. Skyy stumbled to her feet, minding her sore ankle and raised her fists.

"Awesome!" she breathed and a grin spread across her face. Hotarumon dashed towards the seeker and heaved four fire bombs from her mouth that rained down onto it. The seeker tried to shield with its scythe but this time the attack actually caused some damage and seeker wailed out in pain as the fire burned through its cloak. Skyy cheered louder and bounced up and down. Tai watched it awe.

As Hotarumon pounced around the enemy and launched attacks, Skyy would cheer louder, giving her digimon encouragements. Skyy called out attacks and guided Hotarumon as she fought and soon the seeker fell to its knees, its clothes and skin singed and smoking. Skyy launched a finger in the air.

"Alright!Now finish him!" She yelled and Hotarumon did just that. She shifted around the seeker so fast it looked there was multiple versions of her and from her multiple bodies grew a fiery inferno and it twisted around the seeker, engulfing his entire body. The seeker wailed out and when the fire disappeared the dark body disintegrated into the air. Hotarumon landed beside Skyy and glowed white as she shifted back down to Pleomon. Pleomon let out a loud sigh and collapsed tiredly onto the ground. Skyy picked her up and swung her around despite Pleomon's head lolling around like a broken doll's.

"That was so cool Pleomon! You're so cool!" Skyy squealed and squeezed her partner to her chest. Pleomon grumbled something before drifting off to sleep. Tai slowly got to his feet, staring at Skyy and her digimon. She…had defeated the seeker digimon….just like that….

After the battle the group was tired out and the sun had started setting, bathing the scenery in a warm glow. They headed back to the computer monitor they had come out of in the forest and said their goodbyes to their digimon. Tai and Skyy zipped back through the portal and rushed out of the empty school and onto the city streets, to the bus stop. When on the bus Skyy frowned and folded her arms.

"Hey, stop following me," she grumbled when the bus stopped and her and Tai both got off. Skyy's foot was still bruised so she was slightly limping, but it wasn't twisted so she could still walk on her own. Tai had his hands resting behind his head and his eyes were closed. He peeked one eye open to look at her.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I live in this direction," he said simply, his breath visible in the cold air. Skyy tightened her crossed arms and huffed. Tai grinned. "That was pretty cool, what Pleomon did just now," Tai said as if it was a passing thought. Skyy perked up and grinned broadly.

"I know right! It's was so cool! She totally beat the crap out of that bastard!" Skyy said passionately. Tai laughed.

"You have quite the mouth on you don't you?" he teased. Skyy snorted.

"Whatever,"

"So, you seemed like you had fun, despite almost getting killed," Tai said sarcastically. Skyy blushed in embarrassment but didn't reply. Tai glanced at her and chuckled lightly.

"So, did you like it? The Digital World?" Tai asked. Skyy bit her lip ad looked away.

"It was…interesting," she mumbled quietly. Tai laughed again and ruffled her hair. She frowned but didn't bother trying to evade his hands anymore as they effectively messed up her hair.

They both walked the rest of the way home chatting normally, their shadows getting longer and longer behind them as the sun set deeper under the horizon.

She said she'd only go once more. To the Digital World, to Pleomon. Then forget. Forget everything, and everyone. She'd told herself that she didn't care. She didn't want to care. She had to keep a promise. She never broke promises. She already admitted she might care a little bit for Pleomon, that's why she went to see if Pleomon was okay. Inside, she was afraid for her digimon. She didn't want the evil to hurt her Pleomon. But, still. It still scared her. She had to remember. She couldn't forget _**that**_. She had to forget this though. This would be of no help to her. That's why. That's why she said she'd only go once. She had to forget this. She had to.

She'd go once, then never again. _**Never**_ again.

…..

Never….

…again?

…

* * *

**Yaay! Third chapter :) this time the battle scene was actually a bit more fun to write ;P **

**Anyway, I hoped you liked this chapter :) please review with your thoughts! I always love to get feedback on my work.**


	4. Giving In

Digimon Adventure: Connections

Chapter 4: Giving In

Skyy twisted the small silver key to the side and heard the lock click open. She pulled out the key and shoved it into her book bag and with her shoulder shoved the door open. Pleomon pounced through the door before Skyy could even step in herself and she sighed, letting a weak smile slip onto her lips. She slipped her shoes off and padded into the once again empty apartment. Pleomon giddily bounced around and hopped onto the couch, pouncing up and down on the cushions. Skyy laughed lightly and walked over to her bedroom after hanging up her coat, gloves and scarf.

She clicked open the door, dumped her bag on her bed and slumped into her pink computer chair. She swiveled to face her computer and turned it on, waiting as it hummed to life. Pleomon peeked her head around the door and examined Skyy's bedroom. Then she jumped up onto Skyy's computer desk and sat down.

The room wasn't much. It was small and the floor was hardwood. The walls were white and plain and Skyy's bed was modern and simple with light purple sheets that were strewn over the mattress and had no patterns. The baseboard of the bed extended out into a desk which sat Skyy's blue PiBook laptop complete with a clear light up mouse and a plain white mouse pad. There was also a printer that connected to the laptop and a pink, plastic, rolling, computer chair. There was a simple calendar with famous art works on it hanging on the wall but there were no plans or dates circled on it, it was empty. There was no carpet in the room except for scattered newspapers all concentrated in the far corner of the room. There sat Skyy's painting easel and a cart with a variety of paints and paint brushes and other supplies like oil, paint thinner, sponges, spatulas and colour pallets. Behind the easel sat a long row of empty canvases of different sizes. There was another small row of two or three canvases that were finished paintings but they had collected dust had seemed to have no intention of being hung up for display.

Skyy always tried to sell her paintings right away; she had no desire to keep any. There was no dresser for there were drawers under Skyy's bed which was where she kept most of her clothes. There was also a small closet in the wall where she kept a few dresses. On the wall there was a row of hooks were she kept some jackets and purses and hats. There was a large sliding door that led out to a very small balcony, like, literally maybe three feet out and the width of the doors. It was only small and there were three pots of vine plants that curled down the rusted railings. Pleomon sighed rather loudly as she glanced around the room again.

"Hey…Skyy I'm hungry," she said sheepishly. Skyy glanced at her and grinned.

"Oh? What kind of food do you even eat?" she wondered. Suddenly Pleomon began to glow white and she shape shifted to a smaller form. Skyy raised her eyebrows. Pleomon was now a much simpler version of herself. She became a round-ball shaped creature. Almost like a head without a body. Her fur was white and she still had the same orange triangle marking on her forehead. But instead of her normal bright turquoise eyes, she had soft brown ones. Despite having no body she still had those oddly shaped, orange, diamond ears with the little black baubles on the ends. Skyy rested her chin on her palm.

"So, who are you now?" she asked. The digimon looked down at her body.

"I'm Umimon now," she said in almost the same cute female voice as Pleomon. Just then a gurgle sound echoed from Umimon's stomach and Skyy laughed. She scooched out from her chair.

"I'll go see what we have in the kitchen," she said and wandered out of the room. Umimon's eyes sparkled and she raced after Skyy, bouncing like a soccer ball. Skyy mulled through the fridge and called out some foods they had.

"Well, I don't really want to make anything…but we have some leftovers. We've got some onigiri, some takoyaki, and some daifuku…but daifuku is probably too sweet to eat as a snack…more for dessert…" Skyy hummed. She ended up pulling out the leftover rice balls and warmed them up in the microwave. She placed them on a plate and brought them back to her desk with Umimon greedily buzzing around her legs. As soon as she lay the plate down Umimon hopped up and dug in. Skyy held in a laugh as Umimon stuffed her cheeks which made her resemble a chipmunk with acorns stuffed in its mouth.

She turned back to her computer and happily noticed a familiar name was online on her messenger. She excitedly opened up the window and typed in a hello. The person typed back cheerily and Skyy smiled broadly.

Jeremy: _so, how's Japan for you?_

Skyy: _familiar, yet not at the same time. I remember a lot of things from when I was a kid, but I have to get re-used to them_

Jeremy: _I wish I could go to Japan, it seems much more different then Korea_

Skyy: _well, I've never been to Korea, but I'm sure it's different, a _**hell**_ of a lot different then Canada_

Jeremy: _aha~!_ _so…how are you? Feeling any better?_

Skyy: _….yes….but_

Jeremy: _but?_

Skyy bit her lip and her fingers hovered over the keyboard. Should she tell him? About Pleomon and the Digital World? Nah. He'd think she was crazy.

Jeremy was a friend of hers from Canada that she'd met at her school. He was one year older than her but he had helped her a lot. So he was…about 14 now? He was originally born in Korea, and then grew up in Britain for a while, before finally moving to Canada. The last time she saw him he had blonde hair, before that it had been bright orange. Somehow he always knew what to say to make her feel better about things.

She could talk to him about the Digital World. She was afraid of what he would think though. But she needed advice…

Skyy sucked in a breath and typed out her reply.

Skyy: _okay so…I've got a problem_

Jeremy: _haha, a problem? That's not so hard to believe :)_

Skyy: _….shut up…._

Jeremy: _just kidding~! So what's the problem?_

Skyy: _I can't really explain it in detail…_

Jeremy: _so explain it vaguely :)_

Skyy twisted her mouth to the side. How was explaining it vaguely going to do any good? But she had no choice…she didn't want to give him too much information.

Skyy: _well, let's just say some things came up, and I don't know if I should go along with it or not. I mean it's kind of beyond my control, but I don't know if it could be bad or good._

Jeremy: _…okay_

Skyy: _I'm just confused about it; I don't know what to do_

Jeremy: _I think you should go along with what your heart says, as cheesy as that sounds_

Skyy: _…_

Skyy: _that does sound cheesy_

Jeremy: _if you want to let yourself go then that's probably the best thing for you. If you feel otherwise, then it's not. But honestly, what harm can a new adventure bring hm? :)_

Skyy glanced at Umimon who was licking around her mouth after she had finished the last rice ball. A warm feeling of familiarity rose in her stomach and a sense of understanding. She'd known Pleomon for about a week now. But this was the first time she had come back with Skyy to the real world.

Skyy took out her digivice and gazed at it. Follow her heart…what if she didn't know what her heart wanted? She hadn't even asked for this role that she'd been given. To be a digidestined, to help save the Digital World, crests of life. It was ridiculous. Where did this all even come from? It was completely out of the blue and had no pre-warnings. Was she seriously and honestly expected to accept and fulfill this role that had been dumped into her unwilling hands?

She didn't even know how she felt about the whole thing. It seemed a little weird. A Digital World? Digimon? It was unrealistic. Yet here Umimon sat, right in front of her, in the real world. So they **were** actual living creatures. How was it though that only a group of eight kids, excluding herself, had been sent there? And why kids? Why not adults? Though it wasn't like adults could be really trusted with the safety of the world. They didn't understand the same way kids did. Maybe that was the reason. Kids would blindly believe anything.

Tai and the others had been given their roles as digidestined when they were children. It sort of made sense because as kids, they wouldn't have really asked or doubted anything about digimon or the Digital World. Well except maybe Izzy. But he had still been a kid, so he still had the overall logic of a child.

Why wasn't she told about Pleomon or the digital world at the same time they were? Things would have been…easier then. But things had happened that couldn't be reversed. Skyy had changed from when she was a child which made circumstances in her life unavoidable. But this, she didn't expect this. Something this big and crazy… something that came with so many… connections. Skyy's heart was wavering. She didn't know what to do; she didn't know how she felt. She was still scared, but she also grudgingly acknowledged that she cared about Pleomon and her safety.

But all this duty that came with it. This saving the Digital World and defeating the seekers. She didn't know how she felt about it. She didn't want to accept it. She told herself she shouldn't. She'd told herself so many things. It was all so crazy in her mind right now. She was so confused. What was the right thing?

Skyy almost groaned and leaned back in her chair, causing it to squeak out in protest. Her fingers tightened around the small digivice.

What would happen if she _**had**_ accepted it? Follow her heart…

She looked at Umimon. What if…she had already accepted her role as soon as she got it?

* * *

Skyy wandered around the empty school hallways after the last bell had rung and everyone was either at clubs or had left to go home. The sun cast shadows down the long hallway and gave it a peaceful feeling. Pleomon was mulling around somewhere. Skyy couldn't leave her at home because she'd be bored to death, but she couldn't bring her in the school or else she could be found out. So she left Pleomon to her own wanderings around the school property as long as she made sure she wasn't seen. Skyy knew her digimon could take care of herself so she paid no mind to her.

Skyy wasn't apart of any clubs, she wasn't interested in those kinds of things. She decided she could possibly camp out in the art room sometimes though and paint. She wouldn't join the art club because she painted better when she was alone. And she hated hearing the chatter of amateur artists or just the useless chatter of students when they brought their friends along to hang out like the art room was some sort of social scene.

But today she didn't feel like painting. But she didn't want to go home either. Her mom had the day off today and had stayed home. So for some reason, she didn't want to go home right away. She sighed and clasped her hands behind her back. Skyy stopped and looked out of the window to the school's soccer field and grinned when she saw a familiar brunette boy. Tai was walking like a drill sergeant in front of a crowd of other soccer students and seemed to be barking out orders or something along those lines. He was dribbling a soccer ball with his feet as if it was second nature and he was just doing it without paying attention. Skyy watched for a little while before giving him a wry smile and continuing wandering around the hallways.

Soon she found herself up by the computer room and she hesitated at the door. After a minute of contemplating it she slid the door open quietly. Her eyes widened when she noticed there was already someone occupying the room. She recognized Izzy leaned over the Digital World computer with his laptop on as well beside him. Izzy stopped typing and glanced in her direction. Skyy didn't know why, but she quickly darted out of sight and hid behind the door. She held her breathe, hoping that he hadn't seen or heard her.

"Hey, Tsutsumi?" Izzy's voice called out. Skyy inwardly groaned. She paused before curling around the door to become visible. Izzy smiled when he was right. Skyy shifted on her feet uncertainly before stepping into the room. She grabbed a chair and sat down beside the computer geek silently. Izzy returned to what he was doing and didn't seem like he was going to initiate any conversation. Skyy frowned. If he wasn't going to talk to her, why did he call her out like that? Skyy pulled on her fingers nervously; it was a bad habit that she was starting to fall into.

She noticed him typing away codes onto the bigger computer. His laptop was connected and had a bunch more windows opened with typed out codes on them. On the bigger computer there was a map of the digital world and big black blobs moving around on it. As Izzy typed in the codes onto the big computer the map changed and the blobs moved around to different areas. Skyy leaned closer for a better look.

"What are you doing?" she asked. Izzy perked up and stopped typing. He interlaced his fingers and stretched them outwards so they made some cracking sounds. He leaned back in his chair and sighed.

"I'm creating a map of the Digital World that will track and pick up sets of seekers," he said. "It shows all the areas that the seekers are patrolling, this way we can locate them quickly and get rid of them." Skyy looked at her fingers in her hands. Izzy seemed to notice she wasn't going to say anything so he continued typing away, glancing at her every now and then.

"Why do you care about the Digital World so much?" Skyy murmured after a long pause of silence. Izzy looked at her.

"What?" he said as if she had asked the most stupid question in the world. She retreated within herself a little and looked away. Izzy seemed to notice her discomfort and realized she was asking a serious question.

"The Digital World coexists with our world, and when one becomes unbalanced, the other in turn is also affected," he said.

"You said that before," Skyy muttered. Izzy shrugged.

"So, it's a good reason," he grinned. "Also, I've grown a deep sense of affection for the Digital World and its inhabitants. It's where Tentomon lives and calls home. Isn't it only natural then that I would want to help them if they come under any danger? Especially if I am able to," he added smiling genuinely. Skyy stared at him. She remembered what had happened that other time she had been to the Digital World. She smiled fondly to herself when she remembered the beautiful field that Tai had shown her. She remembered how peaceful the digimon had been at that time, playing in the grass without a care in the world.

Pleomon had protected her as well that time. Sacrificing her strength and power to save Skyy when she was in danger. No one…had done that for her before…

"Why can't we just charge in and defeat them all in one go?" Skyy said bordly. Izzy snorted and began typing again.

"That's both illogical and irresponsible," he said bluntly. Skyy frowned and rolled her eyes. "We need to be careful, we need to plan out our attacks and plan what areas we go to and when," Izzy explained. "And because of some slight complications, we're not as strong as we used to be, and with the number of enemy seekers that keep propping up, we need to take time and train ourselves and our digimon so that we're prepared to take on the final boss." Skyy nodded blindly without really paying attention. Izzy paused and looked at her from the corner of his eye.

"Y'know…" he started, "we really will need your help, if you're willing that is," he said carefully. He didn't want her running out on him again. Skyy looked at the ground. She seemed to be hearing this drivel a lot lately. She had thought about it a lot too.

"I don't know…" she mumbled. Izzy looked at her seriously, half shifting his body.

"If you don't mind, may I ask why you're uncertain about this?" Izzy asked. Skyy chewed on the inside of her cheek before answering.

"I…can't really answer that," she said. Izzy frowned.

"You care about Pleomon don't you?"

"Yes," the answer was immediate

"So, don't you want to protect her as she protects you?"

"I…guess…"

"So then, will you not try and save her home when it is in danger?"

"Well when you put it like that..." Skyy groaned. Izzy shrugged.

"I just don't see why else you would hesitate, you say you care for her, will you not help save her world?" Izzy said. Skyy kicked the air lightly in annoyance. He was making her feel sort of stupid.

"There are other circumstances in my life that I need to consider," Skyy finally said.

"And what is that?"

"You wouldn't understand," Skyy quickly said as a flash of emotion passed in her eyes. Izzy seemed to notice it and pressed on.

"We all have our own lives as well. We didn't change the way we live so that we could be digidestined," he said.

"It's not that, it's just…something too far for even _**you**_ to understand, please stop prying," Skyy said. Izzy nodded once.

"Of course," he said curtly, his face a mask. Skyy pursed her lips and looked at her white, indoor uniform shoes.

Both teens were silent and soon the quietness started eating at Skyy and she spoke up just to kill her nerves.

"But, I will go back…maybe, I might help a little," Skyy mumbled. Izzy glanced at her and a softness passed through his dark eyes. He smiled.

"You're quite the puzzle Tsutsumi," he joked and Skyy raised an eyebrow.

"Puzzle? How so…?" Skyy frowned and crossed her arms. Izzy just smiled again, more to himself than to her.

"Why don't we go back to the Digital World tomorrow then to test your abilities a bit?" he said brightening up and avoiding her question. Skyy decided not to ask him further and just went along with the new change of subject.

"Gee thanks for making me sound like some sort of experiment," she huffed. Izzy flinched and scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Er- no that's not what I was implying," he said quickly. Skyy looked away, annoyed. Izzy fell silent and decided to resume typing. Skyy glanced at him.

"You sure like computers don't you," she said. It was more a statement then a question. Izzy nodded.

"Yes, I find them very interesting tools," he said. Skyy sighed. He really was a nerd. Izzy glanced at her and seemed like he wanted to say something but then shut his mouth. Then he opened it again, and then shut it. Skyy watched in amusement as he struggled to find out what to say. Finally he managed to croak out something.

"S-so what kind of things do you like?" he asked, then looked away to avoid looking at her. Skyy paused before answering.

"Painting," she said simply. Izzy looked at her.

"Painting?"

"Yeah…I…love to paint," she said softly. Izzy gazed at her for a second and quickly looked away once she met his eyes. An awkward silence fell over them again before Izzy finally stuttered out something to say.

"How long have you been painting for?" he asked. Skyy grinned. He was awkward when it came to having normal conversations that weren't about the Digital World. She shrugged.

"Since forever I guess, I mean I always used to finger paint when I was little, then just got more serious about it as I got older," Skyy said. Izzy nodded before the silence filled the room again. After a minute of just listening to Izzy typing on the computer Skyy sighed loudly.

"You're not very good at keeping up conversations are you?" she said bluntly. Izzy flinched and frowned.

"You don't have to say it so bluntly like that…it's just that I don't know you that well," he mumbled. Skyy raised an eyebrow.

"Or is it just girls in general you have trouble talking to?" she asked slyly. Izzy blushed and turned away.

"I-I'm perfectly fine at talking to girls," he stuttered. Skyy grinned.

"Liar," she teased. Izzy frowned.

"It's not like you're trying to initiate any conversation either," Izzy countered, pouting slightly.

"That's because it's fun watching you struggle," Skyy teased. Izzy frowned.

"You're cruel."

"Mm, not always, I have many sides," Skyy hummed and examined her nails. Izzy smirked and rested an elbow on the back of his chair, turning his body to face her again.

"Oh really? How can one person me so multidimensional?" he asked. Skyy shrugged and grinned.

"Practice?" she said. Izzy shook his head and smiled.

"You're odd,"

"Yeah, I agree," she sighed. "So do you like anything else? Besides computers I mean?"

"I like puzzles," he said. Skyy cocked her head to the side.

"What about hanging out with friends or going to the movies?" she asked. Didn't normal kids like doing those things? Izzy shrugged.

"I don't know, I like being with my friends, but I also enjoy cracking a good puzzle, especially one that no one else is able to crack," Izzy said, a fond smile appearing on his lips. Skyy watched him talk curiously.

"You're weird," she laughed. Izzy frowned.

"To you maybe, to me I'm perfectly normal," he argued lightly. Skyy crossed her arms on the desk and nuzzled her head into them.

"I don't mean anything by it, I'm weird too," she said.

"You're not weird, you're nice…and pretty…you have a lot of things going for you," Izzy mumbled. Skyy raised an eyebrow.

"You think so?" she grinned. Izzy nodded, blushing. Skyy laughed again, "Believe what you want," she hummed, and closed her eyes. Izzy watched her from the corner of his eyes before smiling and continuing to type. Skyy dozed lightly beside the maroon haired boy as he worked, answering questions lightly whenever he brought up the courage to ask them.

He was a nerd. No doubt about it. His answers were always so thought out and he always used bigger and more refined words when it wasn't necessary. Whether it was a habit or it was to impress people she didn't know. But at least he knew what he was talking about. And he seemed to really have a passion for science and computers. She could respect that. It was sort of fun talking to him. He was fun to tease and she liked the way he spoke. It was different to everyone else.

Though it amused her more and more of how much a typical nerd he was. It even made her laugh out loud sometimes, only to leave Izzy confused. He was interesting.

A quiet peace rose between them and they enjoyed each other's company in silence until it was time to leave.

* * *

"_**Yeah!**_ Go Hotarumon!" Skyy cheered loudly as Hotarumon ran and shouldered a seeker in the gut, causing him to fall into a heap on the ground. Just then Birdramon soared up and sent a series of fire ball-like bullets at the seeker and each one burnt through the seekers clothes and skin and it wailed in pain. Then Gatomon pounced up and punched the seeker hard in the face and flipped backwards onto her feet gracefully. Birdramon sent off another series of bullets, finishing off the seeker and it disintegrated into the air.

Skyy pumped a fist in the air and Hotarumon shrunk back down to Pleomon. Pleomon leaped into Skyy's arms, laughing impishly at her win. Skyy hugged her fondly. Birdramon returned to being Biyomon and flew down to Sora. Sora walked up to Skyy with her hands clasped together.

"That was great! After Hotarumon attacked once, our attacks were finally able to work as well!" Sora said and she took Skyy's hand in a friendly manner. Skyy looked at their hands.

"Sorry but, what was your name again?" Skyy asked awkwardly. Sora laughed.

"It's Takenouchi Sora!" she said. Skyy only recognized her as the ginger haired girl she saw Tai with on her first day of school. She was actually surprised when she went to meet Izzy in the computer room and saw this girl waiting for her instead. Skyy thought she looked pretty from far away but from up close she really was very pretty. Almost made Skyy a little jealous…almost. She was also as nice as she was pretty. And from Sora's energy levels she must have been athletic too. Damn. She was a real catch. Why didn't she have a boyfriend? Skyy tilted her head to the side. So this girl had been another digidestined as well…

"Ah, right," Skyy mumbled, nodding once. Pleomon jumped from Skyy's arms and curled around her shoulders. Sora smiled.

"See, it's easy to remember because we have the same name!" Sora said. Skyy nodded. They did sort of have the same name. Sora meant 'sky' in Japanese, and Skyy, though spelt differently, was meant to mean 'sky' in English.

"I guess that's right," Skyy wondered. Kari jogged up to them excitedly with Gatomon tagging behind. She was Tai's sister, but to Skyy they looked nothing alike. Kari had short, thin, light brown hair and dim, but friendly red eyes. Tai had anything but. Skyy almost laughed when she had introduced herself as Tai's little sister. She seemed really mature for her age though, which was a relief.

"I got tones of great pictures of you two!"Kari said, bouncing up and down slightly. Skyy raised an eyebrow.

"You took pictures?" she asked and leaned over Kari's shoulder to see. Kari nodded.

"Yeah! I got some really good action shots!" she said happily. She clicked through and Sora and Skyy watched. Kari had been snapping pictures the entire battle, of both Skyy and Sora, and their digimon. "Ah!" Kari paused, "why don't we take a picture of the three of us!" she suggested and held up the camera and arms length.

Skyy was going to refuse but Kari quickly pulled her in with her and Sora and clicked the picture. Skyy hadn't even gotten to smile and instead her face looked dumbstruck in the picture whilst Kari and Sora had pretty smiles on their faces. Skyy frowned.

"Aw! Skyy you look so cute!" Kari squealed then she paused, blushing in embarrassment. "Um, is okay if we call you that?" she asked worriedly. Skyy's face remained blank and she shrugged.

"You've already started calling me that so why bother changing it now," she said and Kari smiled brightly. She held up the camera and snapped a picture of Skyy quickly. Skyy frowned.

"Hey, don't take pictures of people by surprise," she scolded. Kari stuck her tongue out cheekily.

"It's more fun if you do it by surprise! Besides you can get better pictures and fonder memories if you take pictures in the moment" Kari said sagely as she turned off her camera and put it back in its case around her neck. Skyy tilted her head.

"Why is it that you take pictures all the time…I mean you didn't need to just now," Skyy asked. Kari laughed lightly.

"But today was your second battle in the Digital World!" she said as if it was common sense. Skyy's expression turned to confusion. "I was mad when Tai told me you'd fought a battle already because I wanted to be there when you had your first one, so I made sure to be here when you had your second one!" Kari explained cheerily. The group of girls began walking back to the portal to return home. They had cleared all the seekers today in the immediate area and the digimon were too tired to fight anymore. They had fought and defeated about four seekers today.

"But, why does it matter so much?" Skyy asked as they walked through the thick forest. Kari looked up into the trees and smiled.

"I take pictures because they are the best way of creating memories. I mean yes you can remember fond moments on your own, but eventually they deteriorate as you get older and as you create more memories," Kari explained. "With pictures, you can always look back at them and re-remember old memories and if you take even more pictures, you can remember even more, smaller details that happened. Even if you forget you can always look back if you have pictures."

"What's so good about remembering fond memories…?" Skyy murmured. Kari tilted her head.

"Isn't that one of the gifts of the living? To have and hold all of your memories and look back on what a great and fulfilling life you've had? I think memories are a beautiful thing, good or bad, they are part of the great experiences of life, right?" Kari said softly. Sora nodded from beside her.

"I know fond memories always cheer me up and make me hope for a better future," Sora added.

"Living happily and creating memories, that is what I love about life. Like, you know how some people obsess over and collect baseball cards until they have binders and binders full of cards? It's like that with me but with photographs and memories," Kari giggled.

"Sounds cheesy," Skyy muttered then fell silent. Kari just shrugged and smiled. Skyy scoffed in her mind. _Living is about making fond memories….don't make me laugh._

Skyy frowned and tossed the conversation from her mind. It was silly, and futile. The whole thing. Kari was living in a fantasy. Not all memories were good ones. And even the good ones couldn't erase the pain from the bad ones. Her life was plagued with bad memories.

* * *

Since that day with Kari and Sora it'd been a while since Skyy had been to the Digital World. Whenever she'd go it would be to just fight a bunch of battles with practically the same enemy. Though Pleomon had gotten better at defeating more enemies each time they had battle. At first just taking out one took a lot of her energy, but by now she could deal with an estimated six seekers in one go. Skyy had to admit she was proud.

She sat quietly in the now empty art room. There was no art club after school today and Skyy managed to get permission to stay in the art room for a bit. She sighed and lowered her paintbrush, making sure not to get any wet paint on her uniform. Pleomon hopped up onto the empty desk beside her and sat down. She looked at Skyy's painting curiously and smiled when she recognized it.

"It's the field that we saw in the Digital World!" she said happily. Skyy nodded and she looked over her progress.

"Yeah…it left quite a mark on me it seems," she hummed to herself and began mixing a colour on her pallet. Pleomon sniffed the paint but accidently got some on her nose. She spazzed backwards and wiped at it with her paw. Skyy quickly grabbed her paw to stop her.

"Hey, don't do that. This is acrylic paint, if you smudge it in and it dries it won't come out," Skyy warned. Pleomon stopped struggling and let her paw fall limp. Skyy quickly got some soap and soaked Pleomon's paw with water. She rubbed out the paint before it settled in Pleomon's fur and quickly washed it away. She also wiped away the remaining paint on the digimon's nose before returning to her painting. Pleomon made sure to stay away from the paint and sat further away from it.

"Hey Skyy, why don't you go home after school like the other kids?" Pleomon asked. Skyy paused and shrugged.

"I don't know, I like it better here than at home," she said. Pleomon tilted her head.

"Why?"

"..It's…quiet at home," Skyy said softly. Pleomon scrunched her face.

"But its quiet here too, and there's no food," she pouted and rested her head in her front paws. Skyy smiled.

"You _**would**_ be thinking of food," she said, she leaned down to her book bag and took out her bento lunch. She placed in front of Pleomon and the digimon looked at it curiously. "Have the rest, I didn't eat it all," Skyy said and Pleomon happily dug in.

"Why don't you at least go see Izzy? He stays behind in the computer lab everyday doesn't he? Or Tai, he kicks that ball around outside," Pleomon asked through a mouthful of food.

"I wanted to paint today…I don't have to go see them every day, I already saw Tai yesterday," she said. Pleomon frowned.

"But aren't you lonely?" she asked. Skyy hesitated. Something flashed in her eyes before she answered.

"No, you're here so I'm fine," she said. Just then there was a light knock on the door and Skyy snapped her head up to see who was interrupting her. She saw a crop of maroon hair poke out behind the door. Izzy smiled sheepishly.

"Hey there," he said, raising a hand. Skyy turned back to her painting and Izzy wandered in, assuming he had been invited to. He stood behind her and gazed at her unfinished painting.

"Wow, this is really exquisite," he said in awe. Skyy tried to hold down a smile but failed.

"Thanks," she said. Just then Izzy grinned.

"Heeey, I recognize this scenery, did you see this in the Digital World?"Izzy asked slyly. Skyy looked away guiltily. Though, she wasn't surprised he'd recognized it. Why else would she be painting summer scenery in early May?

"Yeah, so?" she said, annoyed at being caught by him. He just smiled and shrugged.

"Hm, nothing," he said. "I was just asking."

"Why aren't you in the computer lab?" Skyy asked nonchalantly. Izzy sat on a nearby stool and slouched.

"I'm finished working for today, besides aren't I allowed to come and converse?" he pouted, feigning being hurt. Skyy grinned.

"You've gotten better," she said. Izzy gave her a confused look.

"Better at what?"

"Talking to girls," Skyy teased lightly. She decided not to ask him why he came looking for her in the first place. Izzy blushed and looked at the ground.

"That's just because we talk more now, and it has nothing to do with you being a girl," he mumbled. They had been hanging out a bit more recently. When Skyy wanted to hide from going home she either seeked out him in the computer lab or Tai in the gym. They usually talked about the Digital World, but were getting better at talking about other things as well. His odd nerdiness amused her.

"Exactly, if you're talking to me more, you must be getting better at talking to girls, right?" she said as a smile played on her lips. Izzy blushed.

"I said it's not because you're a- oh never mind, it's not like that matters anyway," he muttered. Skyy sighed.

"Yeah, you're right," she said and dipped her paint brush in the paint. Izzy quietened and watched her paint. A soft expression passed over his face without realizing. Skyy glanced at him and tried to surpress a laugh."What?" she asked. Izzy jumped and blushed.

"Ah! Nothing, just, um, do you have plans tomorrow?" he asked shyly. Skyy raised an eyebrow.

"Why?" she asked suspiciously. Izzy rocked back on his stool slightly.

"Well, we could use a good trip to the Digi World to clear some areas, and see how much stronger everyone's gotten," he said. Skyy scrunched her nose and looked away.

"Nah, I don't want to," she said and continued painting. Izzy frowned.

"Why not?"

"I just don't feel like it."

"But last time you said you would go and help out," Izzy said. Skyy shrugged.

"I don't feel like it anymore," she said breezily. Izzy scratched is head.

"Ahh! You're so confusing! I don't understand you," he sighed and rocked forward. Skyy chuckled.

"Ask me again tomorrow, the answer might be different depending on what I feel like," she said. Izzy rolled his eyes.

"You're too easy going," he muttered.

"Well I'm going to Tai's soccer game tomorrow," she said, "so it would have to be before then."

Izzy's face fell a bit. "Oh."

"Aw, don't look so disappointed," Skyy teased. Izzy flinched and turned bright red.

"I-I'm not! I just wanted to get rid of some more seekers and we can't do it without you," Izzy quickly said. "We can't go about this too slowly you know," he muttered. Skyy nodded.

"Yeah, yeah," she sighed. Izzy paused before grinning and scooching his stool a bit closer.

"So, do you like the Digital World yet?" he asked excitedly. Pleomon perked up and looked at her as well. Skyy hesitated and look at the floor, avoiding their eager gazes.

"Well…maybe…a little," she muttered in embarrassment. Izzy smiled brightly. Skyy frowned. "Don't act so happy about it," she scolded. Izzy just laughed at her and she swatted him lightly over the shoulder. Izzy tried to dodge the swipe but ended up leaning too far back and he slipped off of his stool, tumbling to the floor. The stool clattered loudly and Skyy burst out laughing, buckling over in her chair. Izzy frowned and rubbed the now growing bump on his head in embarrassment. But when he looked up at Skyy's laughing face he smiled lightly and laughed along with her.

The laughter filtered out of the small art room and danced in the empty hallways.

It didn't seem like it but Skyy had now known Pleomon and Tai and the others for about a month. She hadn't expected it, but they had slipped into her life without her realizing and even though she was still confused, she found herself visiting the Digital World and talking with Tai and his friends more frequently.

It seemed almost addicting and she couldn't help herself. So she blindly followed and let herself go unconsciously.

She hadn't meant to, and she didn't realize she was doing it. She had said she'd never go again. Old promises and memories moved to the back of her mind when she hadn't meant them to and the Digital World seemed to take over.

Where was this going to lead?

* * *

**Sorry if this chapter seems sort of pointless. I wanted to get Skyy past the awkward stages and get some time to pass and for her to get a bit friendlier with the other characters. Friendships take time and because of her personality right now she couldn't just suddenly become good friends with them all.**

**I hope you enjoyed it anyway :)**

**Please review with your thoughts, they are much appreciated!**


	5. Curiosity

Digimon Adventure: Connections

Chapter 5: Curiosity

Tai's house was a lot different than Skyy's, despite having the exact same layout. Skyy and Tai had already figured out a while ago that they lived on the same floor in the same apartment building. Skyy just happened to live two doors down from Tai so their apartments had the exact same layout on the inside.

But Tai's house was different to hers. It had different furniture and different decorations and paint on the wall. But that wasn't it. The feeling was different. Tai's house felt much nicer, more lived in and just, happier. Skyy's house seemed a bit more dull and empty, even when there were people in it. She hated it.

Time had passed quickly since Skyy had first gone to the Digital World and had received her digivice. She almost didn't realize it. Everyday she's go to school and see Tai and Izzy, Matt and Sora. They became familiar and she no longer avoided contact with them as much as she used to.

By nature Skyy was anti-social and avoided dealing with people in general. But as soon as she broke the barrier and started talking with people, and spending time with them, she became more open to them and didn't shut down.

Almost every day Skyy would stay behind at school to either watch Tai practice soccer, or she would go out with everyone to go shopping, or to the café, or the local arcade to spend all of their recent allowance. She started eating with them at lunch, and they would all work together on homework in groups. A few days when Matt brought his bass guitar to school he would happily teach her some chords whenever she showed interest. Sora became her closest female friend. Though whenever Sora tried to go all out girl mode on Skyy, she would get uncomfortable and avoid the girly subjects, like crushes and romance related stuff. As interested as Sora was in it, Skyy didn't care about those things and it bugged her to talk about them.

Kari would take endless pictures of all of them whenever they went out together. Skyy had gotten to like the little girl and loved it when the cute brunette dished out dirt on her brother. That way Skyy could use it to tease him later.

Out of the entire group Skyy most familiarized herself with Tai. They had the most in common and didn't even need to try to get along, it was just natural. After a while it almost became like they had been friends since childhood. Though the only area they disagreed on was art and sports. Skyy was as lazy as could be, whereas Tai thrived on a good workout with his soccer ball. Skyy loved painting and anything with artistic value, but Tai would get bored and didn't comprehend at all what the true sense of art was. Though whenever he saw Skyy painting or sketching something he would make the forced effort to say something good about it. Skyy appreciated that much.

Tai was an open guy and never judged anyone, he openly accepted everyone for who they were which also probably made Skyy feel closest to him, because he didn't ask any questions and accepted her behavior as a part of her.

Izzy had once told her that the only reason he knew Tai, and had gone to summer camp so long ago in first place was because he had to join the school soccer club to fulfill a physical education requirement and Tai had invited him to go. He had noted that Tai treated everyone equally and without discrimination, and this was why Izzy looked up to Tai and valued his opinions so much. Skyy had immediately agreed with him.

So in the end, before she knew it she stood in front of his apartment door, seeking an escape from her parents. She had gotten into a small squabble with her mom when she had gotten home and barged out of the house. When the cheery bushy haired boy answered the door Skyy didn't have to say anything before he gladly let her in. It was the first time she'd been there yet he'd let her straight in without question. It was a little odd to see Tai in a casual setting, yet it comforted her a lot more than being around her own family.

Though, it was a little creepy how his mom kept looking at her all throughout dinner. Tai was laughing and talking loudly with his dad and didn't notice, but Skyy and Kari sure did. Kari would keep laughing under her breath and give Skyy sympathetic looks. She would also try to keep up conversation with her so that she wasn't so aware of the woman's eyes on her. When they had all finished eating Skyy was only too happy to get away from Tai's mom's gaze.

"Hey, Skyy, my room is this way," Tai said as he scooched from his chair and pointed to a door on the other side of the kitchen. Skyy nodded and began making her way over. Tai followed but was then pulled to the side by his mom. Skyy stopped at the door and listened curiously.

"Tai, how long have you known this girl?" his mom whispered excitedly. Tai sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"For a while now, why?" he asked suspiciously.

"Oh, it's just the first time you've had a girl over, is she someone special?" his mom said more eagerly. Tai turned bright red and his jaw dropped.

"What! God no! She's just a friend! _**Mom**_!" Tai stuttered in embarrassment. A grin broke out on Skyy's face.

"Well sorry, she's just the first girl you've had over, like I said, plus you invited her into your room," his mom said, obviously disappointed. Tai tried blocking his mom from Skyy's view, as if it would help for her not to hear them.

"I've had other girls over before!" Tai said quickly.

"But not at this age, you were little then," his mom argued.

"So! I'm only 13! She's just a _**friend**_!" Tai said and rushed away before his mom could accuse him anymore. He rushed past Skyy with a bright red face and she laughed as he barged into his room. His mom watched curiously as Skyy wandered in after him and Tai quickly closed the door behind her.

"Aww, too embarrassed to have your mom see us?" Skyy teased. Tai glared at her.

"Shut up," he said, the pink of his embarrassed blush still tinting his cheeks. Skyy smirked when he collapsed onto his bed and groaned loudly. Skyy sat down in Tai's desk chair and smoothed her skirt over her knees. She still hadn't changed out of her uniform, unlike Tai who was wearing a T-shirt and sweat pants.

"Sorry, my mom's….she gets weird ideas sometimes," Tai said. Skyy grinned and leaned her elbow on his desk.

"I see," she said. She noticed a small toy sat close to her and started absent mindedly playing with it. Tai sat up and kicked the air.

"So what's up? You just bored or something?" he wondered. Skyy shrugged.

"You could say that," she hummed. "Anyway, what are we going to do? It's been 2 months already," Skyy said. Tai frowned and his eyes slipped to his sock clad feet.

"Yeah, we've been fighting the seekers off, but nothing much has really happened so far," Tai grumbled, watching as he stretched his toes back and forth.

"We're not getting anywhere," Skyy said in annoyance. She was actually surprised how annoyed she was. She wanted this to be over quickly.

"I wish we could just go and maul them all in one shot," Tai said punching the air as if he was beating an opponent. Skyy perked up; lifting her eyes from the toy she was playing with.

"Why can't we?" she asked. Tai lolled his head around in a circle, his gaze stopping on his spinning fan on the ceiling.

"We can't, it's too rash. Izzy knows what he's doing, he's spent a lot of time planning out things for us so we can do this is easily, plus, we've told you before that we've all lost our crest's powers, so our Digimon can only evolve to Champion level…" Tai sighed as if he'd heard it from the maroon haired boy a hundred times. Skyy pouted angrily. But she remembered how Izzy had been in the computer room just about every day when they didn't go to the Digital World. He had been tapping away on his laptop and the portal computer with his face always pinched in concentration. Sometimes Skyy would go bother him, but also she would sometimes watch him working for a few minutes in secret until she decided not to bother him and went home.

"Bummer," she muttered. Tai chuckled.

"Tell me about it. It's so frustrating. But Izzy's been thinking a lot about it and he's a lot smarter than any of us," Tai laughed. Skyy grudgingly agreed. He was smarter than them. "Also, he's thinking a lot about you too," Tai added. Skyy stopped playing with the toy and looked wide-eyed at Tai.

"W-what?" she stuttered. Her chest felt light all of a sudden and her face got slightly warmer as she registered her reaction to Tai's comment. Tai didn't notice her blush though.

"Well, he doesn't want you and Pleomon fighting too many battles too soon, you'd get too tired out, and you're our ace player," he said simply. Skyy immediately felt stupid.

"Oh," she said in a disappointed tone. Weird. Why was she disappointed? There wasn't anything to be disappointed over. What was she expecting? Something she hadn't gotten apparently…but she didn't know what it was. She quickly scowled. Tai's mom's food must have been bad if she was getting funny feelings.

Tai didn't notice her disappointed tone and continued. "Yeah, we need you for pretty much every battle so we have to go slowly for your sake, that's what he said," Tai said and lay down on his bed with his hands behind his head. Skyy resumed playing with the toy before finally getting bored and tossing it away.

"I've always wondered, why does it have to be me? I mean why am I so special compared to you guys?" Skyy asked. Tai looked at her from the corner of his eyes.

"Apparently you have a power that none of the rest of us has. With Pleomon you can purify the seekers, which allows our digimons' attacks to work after," Tai explained. Skyy remembered hearing something like this from Izzy, but he had explained it using a lot more scientific words and she hadn't really understood. "They have some sort of darkness in them that gives them these weird barriers," Tai grumbled. Skyy tilted her head.

"What power is it…?" she asked. She had also heard a few times that she'd had this 'special' power. Even when that big evil darkness came when she first went to the Digital World, it said she had some sort of power that it wanted. She still didn't know what this _**amazing**_ power was and why it made her such a desirable item to their enemy. She didn't feel any different. She didn't feel like there was any special power inside of her. Tai scratched his nose in thought.

"Gennai said it was the power of eternal life," Tai said. Skyy's eyes narrowed, and she clenched her teeth on reflex. Her eyes snapped away from Tai and her voice sounded like venom.

"Who would want such a power?" she hissed under her breath. Tai looked at her and frowned.

"It wouldn't be that bad," He said, then grinned. "You could eat and sleep and just do nothing all day. And you wouldn't have to worry about school and making a living because you're gonna live a long time anyway, and you wouldn't need to save up for retirement or anything," he joked.

"Living forever is horrible, it'd be better to greet death quickly," Skyy said, annoyed. Tai pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked at her with a concerned expression. "Death is fated to come to everyone anyway, being forced to live in the twisted world forever is terrible," she finished. She looked out Tai's window at the black night that was dotted with many lights coming through the many windows of the apartments and buildings across the way. Tai looked at the floor, hesitating, before looking back at her and opening his mouth to speak.

"Why would you want to die so much?" he asked. Unknown to him the question had more weight to it then he could imagine and Skyy flinched. Her eyes darkened and she pursed her lips together tightly into a thin line. Tai waited for her to give him an answer but she flicked her hand in the air and crossed her legs.

"No reason," she said flippantly and leaned forward. "It's just not that great of a power," she concluded and Tai looked at her silently for a minute, studying her features. Skyy avoided his gaze until he gave up and flopped down onto his back again.

"Well, just because you have that power doesn't mean **you're** going to live forever, you might be able to make someone else live forever though," he said. Skyy's wandering eyes landed on Tai's small stand up calendar and saw a date was circled in bright red ink on a day the next week from then. Tai noticed her looking at it and stretched his neck to read what it said. "Oh! There's a festival next week," he said finally. Skyy jumped, not realizing he'd been watching her read it.

"I see what festival?" she asked. Tai looked at her like she was weird.

"What _**seriously**_? It's the Sanno*festival, _**duh**_," he said. Skyy frowned.

"Well sorry, we didn't really celebrate many Japanese festivals in Canada, I'm just not used to it anymore," Skyy said quickly in defense. Tai laughed.

"Well, just remember to wear proper clothes then," he teased and Skyy pouted angrily and nudged his side with her foot.

"Shut up, I will!" she snapped then smiled when Tai laughed as her foot tickled him.

"I don't know if we'll get to see the parade, there are so many people there every time, so we might just hang around the stalls and games they have up, we can go on the ferris wheel too," Tai said once Skyy finally stopped tickling him. Skyy lowered her foot and looked at the ground. Tai looked at her downcast expression and grinned. "You can come with us if you want," he said and Skyy looked up at him.

"Really?" she mumbled, a smile tugging at her lips. Tai laughed.

"Of course, why else wouldn't you?" he said. Skyy smiled fully and played with her fingers. Tai grinned at her obvious happiness. Suddenly she frowned.

"Hey wait, are we able to go out and have fun? I mean, with the current situation in the Digital World?" Skyy asked. Tai sighed.

"Well, like I said, it's not like we can just charge in there. Izzy is still figuring out a weak point in our enemy, and you need a break once in a while right? " Tai said. Skyy nodded.

"Yeah, I guess," she said.

"Just make sure you wear a yukata to the festival, I want to see what you look like in one!" Tai teased. Skyy made a move to tickle him again and he flinched away.

"Jeez, I'll look just like every other girl," she said. Tai shrugged.

"I wanna see you in one anyway," he said. Skyy wondered when the last time she wore a yukata was. Not in a very long time. She assumed her mom still had some. Would there be any that fit her now?

"Hm, I'll have to send Pleo back to the Digital World then, it would be problematic to bring her and she can't stay home alone…" Skyy mumbled, more to herself.

"Hey, how's Pleomon doing anyway?" Tai asked. Skyy grinned.

"I think she has a digimon crush on Gomamon, she talks about him nonstop," Skyy chuckled. Tai snorted a laugh.

"What? Is that possible?" he asked. Skyy shrugged and laughed.

"We'll have to wait and see," she said, smiling.

They chatted happily until Skyy finally decided she should leave and return home. They talked about almost everything. Tai didn't bring up the eternal life thing again though. He figured Skyy would only avoid the topic and would just get angry if he pushed it on her. So he kept his mouth shut. But he definitely wanted to know why she was so sensitive about it. Something was going on in her head and he wanted to know what it was, it worried him.

When Skyy finally left he reluctantly watched her sneak into her own house. He waited until her door clicked shut before he walked back into his own house.

* * *

Skyy's house was dark and quiet. Her parents had gone to bed.

She crept into her room quickly and saw Pleomon sleeping in her usual spot on the pink plastic computer chair. That was the first place the digimon had slept in when she was in the real world and she seemed attached to it. Skyy smiled weakly and quickly changed into her PJs. She curled into her bed and brought the covers right over her head.

She drifted off to sleep much quicker than she thought she would. Tomorrow she was going to the Digital World yet again. She got a little excited every time she was about to go battle. She always got hyped up watching Pleomon. Skyy smiled to herself.

She couldn't wait.

* * *

Skyy blushed in embarrassment at her reflection in the mirror. She spun around awkwardly taking in every inch of her outfit. She sighed and fiddled with the sleeve hem of her yukata.

Her mom had indeed had some old yukatas. She had a really old one from when she was young that luckily fit Skyy. But it was so old fashioned; Skyy was a little embarrassed just wearing it. She was considering taking it off before leaving. It was pretty simple. It was a pale beige with some white flower designs on the edges. She wore a light blue under dress so strips of blue stuck out from her sleeves and neck. There was also a blue sash going around her waist to keep it all together. because summer was almost there the night air was warmer and it wasn't too much to wear a thin yukata. So she couldn't take it all off now… she had promised Tai she'd wear one…

She sighed again and quickly scraped up her long blonde locks into a makeshift bun with the shorter bits coming down and loosely framing her face. She added a small clip at the base of the bun and nodded. She was ready.

She crept out of her bedroom and quickly slipped into a pair of black two teethed geta sandals that went with her outfit. Just as she reached for the door her mom came out of the kitchen.

"Oh! Skyy are you leaving now?" she said. Skyy inwardly groaned.

"Yeah, mom, see you later," she said without looking at her. Her mom stepped forward.

"Wait! Skyy!" she called. Skyy's shoulders slumped and she turned around.

"What?" she almost snapped. She immediately regretted her tone. Her mom looked down sadly, and then quickly looked up at her daughter with determination.

"H-have fun!" she said. Skyy's eyes widened slightly. She paused before nodding awkwardly.

"Yeah," he mumbled then turned to open the door. She slipped out leaving her mom behind and shut the door. She frowned when the door locked behind her and she quickly rushed from the apartment.

It took her a while to get through the crowds to the train and then to get off at the right stop. As soon as she got off she was surrounded by other kimono clad people and crowds and crowds of people waiting for the parade and heading for the stalls. The ferris wheel was all lit up and there was a line of people waiting to get on at the bottom. Skyy made her way to the grounds with all the games and stalls and clutched her purple phone. Suddenly it buzzed and she quickly flipped it open to read the text.

_I spy with my little eye, I see a girl in beige and blue!_

Skyy grinned and texted Tai back.

_Where are you?_

It buzzed again.

_Look left! Or, look right?_

Skyy rolled her eyes and looked around. Suddenly a pair of tanned, rough hands covered her eyes and she gasped. She spun around and Tai waved cheekily back at her. She grinned and crossed her arms.

"Dude, next time just tell me where you are," she scolded playfully, hitting him over the shoulder. Tai laughed and shrugged.

"It's more fun teasing people," he said innocently. Just then the usual gang appeared behind Tai and waved their hellos. Sora and Kari wore yukatas as well. Joe and Izzy were the only boys wearing them, but Tai, TK, and Matt had normal clothes on. Skyy softly said hellos.

"So Skyy, looking good!" Tai teased as he raised one of her arms by the sleeve of her dress to get a good look at her. Skyy self consciously brought her arm away and pouted.

"It's old...but it's the only one I had," she said, as if somehow she needed an excuse for wearing it. Tai just grinned at her. Izzy came up behind Tai and smiled widely at her. she smiled back but it immediately dropped when she noticed the tag along Izzy had seemed to bring with him. She raised an eyebrow.

Clung to Izzy's arm was a dark haired girl with thin, black eyes. She had a dark blue yukata on with a black sash. She had pale skin like Izzy and she slightly resembled him. Was she a family member? She was fairly pretty but clung to Izzy like her life depended on it. Skyy got an odd feeling when she eyed the girl's fingers clinging to Izzy's yukata sleeve.

"Hey Tsutsumi! You look really nice today," Izzy said politely, blushing a little. Skyy smiled shyly and fingered her sleeve hem.

"Oh, thanks," she mumbled. The girl looked from Izzy to Skyy then glared. She stomped her foot as if to get attention.

"Not as pretty as me, right Kou-nii?" she said in a sickingly sweet voice. Skyy's smile froze and the weird feeling came back stronger. Her eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Izzy bit his lip nervously.

"Uh…" he mumbled and the group became silent. Skyy could sense waves of annoyance emanating from all of the other kids and they ignored Izzy and his… friend. The girl's eyes bore into Izzy, waiting for his answer. He laughed nervously under her gaze and scratched his head. "Uhh, Tsutsumi! This is my cousin, Sato Akemi," Izzy quickly said. Akemi gave him a slight glare but straightened herself out.

"My name means bright and beautiful!" she said concededly and flipped her black hair with her fingers. Izzy bit his lip again and Skyy raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, right," she said and turned round to face Tai. Akemi flinched and ground her teeth together, fuming at being ignored. She humph'd and held Izzy tighter. Kari glanced from Akemi to Skyy and quickly held up her camera.

"Hey, Skyy let me take a picture of you!" she said nervously and held up her camera. Skyy turned around and smiled lightly. Tai quickly ducked behind her and held up bunny ears behind her head. Kari laughed and snapped the picture before Skyy kicked his shin for ruining it. Kari took another picture of just Skyy to sooth her temper and then the group made their way through the stalls.

Skyy was quiet but the energy her friends had seemed to be contagious. She played a few games but mostly watched. She tried the fish scoop but failed twice. Izzy tried to show her how to do it, and he almost got one to her excitement, until Akemi bounced onto his back squealing "Kou-nii!" really loudly. The scare cause Izzy to buckle forward and the scoop broke, sending the fish back down into the tank. Skyy remembered standing up angrily and Izzy quickly trying to un-stick his cousin and follow after.

Skyy played a game with Tai where you had to knock over bottles with a ball and she happily won, though she assumed Tai let her win because when he did hit a bottle his aim was oddly dead on. But she didn't care; she got a fluffy grey elephant anyways. It was small but soft and she clutched it the whole night happily. She watched Matt and Tai face off in a shooting game and both tied grudgingly, though secretly she'd been cheering for Tai. Kari and Tai played a sibling game one time but lost.

Soon Skyy couldn't help herself and began bouncing around like a kid. She found some traditional masks for sale and she and Tai mischievously bought a pair. They wore them and goofed around, playing pranks and scaring their friends from behind. They found some sparklers too and set them off away from the crowds. Skyy danced around excitedly spelling out her name and drawing pictures with the sparkler. Tai was just pretending to be a wizard and 'casting spells' on people. Skyy had a pretend sword fight with him until his sprinkler went out and she declared herself the winner. She sat with Sora and Joe and laughed as her friends fooled around..

But whenever she tried to talk or do something with Izzy, his cousin would give her death glares and make up an excuse for him to talk to her or to go do something else. And Izzy, being the nice guy, always stopped to help his cousin. Skyy would get annoyed but would quickly brush it off and go find someone else to play with. Kari took so many pictures it was dizzying.

After a while they stopped at a stall and each got some dango. Akemi was trying to get Izzy to feed her but he brushed her off and quickly sat beside someone else. Though that someone else happened to be Skyy and he accidently bumped her arm, causing her last dango to tumble to the ground.

"Aww," she frowned and picked up the dirt covered treat. She pouted and Izzy quickly raised his hands in apology.

"Oh my! I'm so sorry!" he said. Skyy threw her dango into a nearby trash can and shrugged.

"Nah, it was no big deal," she sighed. Though she wanted that last one… Izzy bit his lip and held out his own dango stick.

"Here, take one of mine! Please, as an apology," he said. Skyy raised an eyebrow.

"Really?" she asked. Izzy nodded furiously. Skyy glanced at Akemi, who was staring them down with daggers in her eyes. Skyy grinned slyly and leaned forward. She bit off one of his dangos without using her hands and chewed it happily. Izzy turned bright red and almost dropped the stick. Skyy laughed and wiped some sauce from her mouth with her thumb as she chewed.

"Yum! Thanks!" she said and glanced at Akemi, who was fuming with rage. Skyy did a victory dance in her mind and felt oddly satisfied. Izzy sat in shock with a red face, his hands frozen. Skyy laughed and poked his shoulder a few times. He snapped out of it and shyly ate the rest of his dessert without saying anything.

After their snack they wandered around for a bit. The fireworks would have been starting soon but they still had about half an hour to wait. Akemi attached herself to Izzy as soon as she could and didn't seem like she was going to let go for a while. The group found themselves at the ferris wheel soon enough and decided to get in line at Sora's request. They chatted randomly and waited in line, slowly moving forward with each spin of the large, bright wheel. When they reached the front Matt, Sora, TK, and Kari went up in twos and got onto one cart. Skyy watched as the ride operators shut the lift and the four rose up in an instant. Skyy watched wide-eyed as the cart flew up easily and the next one came down to unload its passengers.

The people came off of the next lift and the guys operating the ride waited for the next people to go on. Skyy eagerly stepped up.

"whose coming with me?" she said excitedly as she sat down in the creaking lift. Tai grabbed Izzy wrist and yanked him forward.

"hey look, Izzy wants to go, why don't you go Izzy? It'll be so fun, look Skyy's waiting for you!" Tai said mischievously and pushed the stumbling red-head onto the lift, much to the protests of Akemi. Before Izzy could protest and get off the Tai slammed the door shut behind them and the lift was off into the air in a flash. Skyy quickly grabbed the safety rails at the lurch of the ride and sighed.

"Well, that was unexpected," she said. Izzy rubbed his head and flopped down on the opposite bench.

"Ow, why did he have to grab me like that, I would've just gone if he'd asked," Izzy grumbled, Skyy nodded. She leaned over and looked down out the window. She saw Tai grinning boyishly with a big thumbs up pointed at her. Skyy glared at him through the glass. Way to make things awkward. Jerk.

She slumped back in the seat. Suddenly she realized her predicament and a very light blush tinted her cheeks. She glanced at Izzy and is cheeks were pink as well. Skyy looked out the window again to distract herself from the atmosphere and noticed a very tiny Akemi throwing a fit on the ground. She raised an eyebrow.

"Your darling cousin doesn't seem to like you being away from her for too long," she said. Izzy blushed and frowned. He glanced down at his angry cousin and sighed in annoyance.

"Yeah, don't ask. My parents told me to bring her; she's my cousin on my mom's side. She's rich and my parents don't want to disappoint her family," Izzy grumbled, crossing his arms. Skyy nodded.

"And she likes you?" she said. Izzy turned scarlet and nodded unhappily.

"I can't fathom why, but it's been like this ever since we were little. She thinks we're going to get married someday or something impractical like that," Izzy frowned. Skyy glanced at him, then down to the floor. She put her stuffed elephant on the bench beside her and clasped her fingers together on her lap, fidgeting.

For some reason, that girl annoyed her. She didn't know why, but whenever she was all clingy around Izzy and calling him 'Kou-nii', it really agitated her. She glanced up at Izzy, who was looking outside shyly and then looked back down at her fingers. Why did she call him Kou-nii anyway? She didn't like that she had cute little nick names for him that Skyy didn't know about. The question came out of her mouth before she could think.

"Hey, what's your real name Izzy?" she asked suddenly. Then she froze and clamped her mouth shut. What had she just _**said**_? Izzy looked at her in confusion.

"What?" he said. Skyy wanted to take back the question. But then again, she'd already asked it, why turn back now?

"I mean, is Izzy your real name? Cause Sato was calling you Kou-nii…" she mumbled. A look of understanding came over his face and he laughed shortly.

"Oh, that," he smiled. "No, Izzy is just a nick name." Skyy tilted her head curiously. Izzy caught on and laughed at her. "You want to know?" he guessed. She nodded eagerly, leaning forward a bit. Izzy smiled and looked at his hands.

"It's Koushiro, Izumi Koushiro," he said. Skyy couldn't help but smile lightly.

"Koushiro," she tested saying his name. Izzy blushed at the sound of his name coming from her. To hide his embarrassment he quickly straightened up.

"Is Skyy your real name?" he asked carefully. Skyy raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah pretty much. My parents are weird and like non-traditional names…" she said shrugging. Izzy nodded. Skyy kept repeating Izzy's name in her head, then scrunched her face.

"I like Izzy better, Koushiro is too long," she said. Izzy chuckled.

"That's why Akemi calls me Kou-nii, though I don't really like it," he sighed. Another wave of annoyance hit Skyy and she frowned. Then she suddenly shook her head furiously.

What was wrong with her, why should she care about the relationship between Izzy and his cousin? It had nothing to do with her. She clenched her hands together tighter in annoyance, and then scowled at her reaction. She huffed lightly and kicked her foot unhappily.

A silence filled the car at the end of their conversation and it was replaced with Skyy's quiet fuming. She folded arms over one another and glared out the window. Just thinking about his cousin got on her nerves, and because she didn't know why it made her even angrier.

"Ferris wheels are quite amazing," Izzy's nervous voice suddenly broke the silence of Skyy's agitated annoyance. She jumped and looked up at him.

"What?"

"The original ferris wheel, also known as the Chicago wheel, opened on June 21, 1893, at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. The Daikanransha that we're riding on now was built here in Odaiba in 1999 and is 115 meters tall," Izzy rambled. Skyy looked at her hands. He was probably just filling the air with nonsense to waste the time as they rose higher. The lights and people got smaller and Skyy started to feel more and more aware that she was alone with Izzy in a ferris wheel cart. She became slightly self conscious. It wasn't this way when she was alone with any of her other friends. Why was she so squeamish about it now that it was Izzy. Izzy was…just Izzy. He went on about the history of ferris wheels and some of the world's largest ferris wheels before Skyy interrupted him.

"Why do you know so much?" she asked. Izzy stopped talking and laughed in embarrassment.

"Sorry if I was rambling," he apologized. Skyy shook her head.

"Nah, it's interesting," she lied. Izzy seemed to tell she was lying but didn't comment on it. He shrugged.

"I'm just overly curious about everything, that's all," he said, smiling fondly. Skyy peeked at him as he spoke.

"Why are you curious?" she asked. Izzy chuckled lightly, as if he was thinking of a past memory or an old inside joke.

"The ability to comprehend, and learn is the greatest asset humans have. It's how we've evolved so much over the centuries. And it's my most precious attribute that makes me who I am," he said softly. Izzy leaned his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands together lightly. "I live my life happily gaining knowledge and gaining more insight on the things around me. I love being able to answer questions and be of help to myself and others. I love that my life has given me this opportunity to learn," Izzy said. Skyy watched him and her heart stirred slightly.. She leaned forward on her elbows casually as Izzy kept talking.

"When I first went to the Digital World," he laughed, "I cared more about researching the Digital World then about my friends," he said nostalgically. "But my curiosity is what drives me to keep going every day, I love it," he finished. Skyy contemplated it quietly. Izzy faced her brightly.

"What drives you to keep going every day?" he asked innocently. Skyy stayed quiet. Izzy raised an eyebrow in confusion after she didn't answer. Just as he was about to ask her why their cart lurched to a stop and the doors slid open. Skyy's heart dropped oddly and Izzy frowned.

"Oh, the rides over," he said, slightly disappointed. Suddenly Skyy dug for some change and sprung out of the cart. She slapped the change into the employee's hand and dashed back into the lift. She slammed the door closed and sat down. The employee stared at her, dumbstruck, before shrugging and pulling the switch, sending them off again. Izzy looked at her with a slack jaw and wide eyes.

"Wha- hey can you even _**do**_ that?" he asked. Skyy shrugged.

"Seems so," she said simply. Izzy stared at her in shock for a second longer before slipping into a smile and laughing lightly.

"You really are a puzzle Tsutsumi," he laughed. Skyy frowned.

"You keep saying that…" she said. Izzy shrugged.

"Well you are, you're too hard to fully understand. One minute your laughing one minute your serious, just what are you hiding?" he said, half jokingly. But Skyy stilled and looked away.

"Nothing you need to know about," she said quietly. Izzy grinned to himself and looked at his hands. Skyy bit her lip in thought.

She didn't know why, but she hadn't wanted to get off the ride just yet. Maybe she just wanted some solitude from the crowds for a bit longer, she didn't know. But she enjoyed sitting there chatting with the nerd and she was sad when the lift had stopped. She'd wanted to stay with him longer. Before she'd known it she impulsively paid for another round.

But, it was normal right? Izzy was a friend and she was having a nice conversation with him, plus she liked riding the ferris wheel. So it was natural she would have wanted to go for another ride. _I think so_…_that must be it_

Their lift slowly swung up to the top and suddenly bright colorful lights flooded the small car and loud, splitting cracks filled their ears. Izzy looked up excitedly, getting up on his feet to look out the window.

"Ah! Fireworks!" he said, his eyes sparkling. Skyy looked up at him, then outside. Her eyes widened when she saw the bright fireworks.

"Fireworks are the cause of a bunch of many chemical reactions. Colors in fireworks are usually generated by pyrotechnic stars which produce intense light when ignited," Izzy started rambling. Skyy watched his excitement from the corner of her eyes. A soft expression filtered onto her features as she gazed at him excitedly talking and watching the fireworks. The colours tinted his face and she couldn't help but take in all of his features. He wasn't the best looking boy she'd ever seen. But now that she really looked at him, he wasn't _**bad**_ looking. He had interesting features that seemed different from every other guy. It was….appealing in a way.

His dark maroon hair, which looked almost inky in the dark light, was a great contrast to his pale toned skin. He was pretty skinny, a little on the lanky side actually. His hands were bigger though, like a boys should be, but his fingers weren't rough looking like Tai's were. They looked delicate and almost like Matt's. Though his hands were probably like that from typing on computers so much. She was surprised he didn't need glasses because he seemed to be looking at bright screens all day. The fireworks sent the reflections of sparkles through his black eyes and a wide grin was on his pale lips.

Wait.

Why was she even thinking about this?

This wasn't like her. Since when did she really pay any attention to boys and how they looked? She never studied Tai, or Matt's features like this when she was with them. She frowned. Just what was going on with her?

She must've eaten some bad dango. Stupid stomach.

It was doing weird things to her and she didn't appreciate it one bit.

Skyy held down a huff and silently watched the fireworks. She was so consumed in her own thoughts she didn't sense the shy gaze that was focused on her. She rested her chin in her hands and puffed her cheeks out as she watched, blowing air in and out of her cheeks to try and distract the odd disturbances in her stomach.

They were pretty high up now and the bright warm lights from all the stalls created a little town below them. The fireworks lit up the sky over the bay and the reflections of the bright colours painted the dark water. She could see their tiny friends crowded at the bottom and the long line of tiny ant people still waiting to get on the ride. A little ways away, past the stalls she could see the grand festival parade going down the streets and she could faintly hear the booming of the drums.

Izzy slowly sat back down and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. His loosely clasped hands slightly brushed her own knuckles in the small cart. Just then another wave of impulsive behavior hit Skyy and she stood up suddenly. Izzy looked up in surprise as she turned and plopped down next to him. She closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder. She could feel Izzy stiffen and heat radiate from his face.

"U-um…Tsutsumi?" he stuttered. Skyy raised a finger to her lips.

"Shh, I'm tired, so just stay like this," she said and lowered her hand. Izzy was silent and it was a minute before she felt him turn his head to look out the window again. She sighed quietly and relaxed against him. His shoulder was bony but surprisingly comfy. He was warm though, really nice and warm. She almost wanted to hug him just so she could soak up his warmth. But that would be weird…and awkward…and stupid.

She frowned. Being alone with him made her act weird. She didn't know if she liked it or not. She'd never been so impulsive before..

She focused on the warmth coming from his shoulder through his yukata and she blushed lightly despite herself.

Stupid dango.

* * *

**Fifth chapter :0**

**Sorry I haven't been writing about them in the Digital World lately. But really, they're just doing the same things over and over, there's no point in writing the same sequences. Not everything can happen in the span of a week. Getting stronger and saving the world takes time people ;P haha**

*** - the ****Sanno****festival is a festival celebrated on June 10****th**** -16****th**** and it is an elegant festival originally held in 1478 to ensure good fortune during the building of the Edo castle in present-day Tokyo. Unfortunately it is not generally celebrated in Odaiba, and takes place in another district/ward of Tokyo that I don't remember the name of. I know there wouldn't be any parades, booths with games, or fireworks like the festival I wrote in this chapter. But I wanted the festival to be like that and wanted to use the name of a real festival that took place around the same time of the year that the story is taking place in right now. So yes it's not really accurate but whatever. **

**Please review :) it's much appreciated!**


	6. Closer

Digimon Adventure: Connections

Chapter 6: Closer

Skyy was getting better at landing after coming through the digital portal that was for sure. She'd happily landed perfectly on her feet when they'd all arrived back in the middle school computer lab. Everyone stretched their sore limbs and yawned loudly. It was almost dinner time by now. Today it was just a few of them that had gone to the Digital World. Skyy, Izzy, Tai, Joe, and TK managed to get rid of about 15 seekers since that morning.

They'd been following this pattern of defeating seeker digimon for about 2 and a half months now. It was slow, but every time they defeated more and more seekers. It showed up on the map that Izzy was monitoring as well. Their enemy seemed to be slow when it came to reinforcing lost numbers in seekers. The Digital World used to be covered with hoards of seekers in every district. But the more they visited the more the numbers diminished and the black blobs on the map disappeared.

With every visit they got a little bit closer to the main enemy in the middle of the Digital World. But it was hard because the closer they traveled to the main enemy's base, the more seekers there were, and they just weren't strong enough to defeat that many seekers all in one go. So they had to just keep visiting and slowly get stronger by defeating a little more of the seekers each time.

Another thing was that Pleomon could only digivolve to Hotarumon. According to Izzy, there was more levels she could digivolve to, but somehow she hadn't been able to do it yet despite all the battles they'd been fighting. He said the key was in her crest virtue but Skyy didn't understand. Izzy had concluded that if Skyy could get Hotarumon to digivolve one up, they might have a better chance at defeating even more seekers. But Skyy had absolutely no idea how to do that. She had told Hotarumon to try, but she just couldn't do it. No matter how bad Hotarumon had tried she just couldn't digivolve further. It annoyed Skyy. Was there something wrong with her? Why couldn't she make Pleomon get stronger?

Pleomon curled up into a ball in Skyy's arms and snuggled into the cloth of her white and purple shirt. The digimon was snoozing lightly and her tail flicked in her sleep. Skyy looked at Pleomon worriedly. Why couldn't she help her digimon?

Tai yawned loudly and scratched his head. "Man, that was tiring, I'm gonna go home and eat a horse if you don't mind," he said sarcastically. TK laughed.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he said, patting his empty stomach.

"Well, until next time then guys? I need to go home and study," Joe said cheerfully, raising a hand in goodbye. Izzy looked at his watch and made a worried sound. Skyy looked at him curiously.

"What's wrong?" she asked. Izzy just shook his head once.

"Nothing, I just promised my mom I'd get groceries for tomorrow, she's holding a dinner party with some of her old high school friends," Izzy sighed, rubbing the back of his neck to massage the sore muscles there.

"How much do you need to get?" Skyy asked. Izzy frowned.

"A lot, but I'll manage," he said again and waved his hand for her not to worry. Skyy thought of going home right now and an unpleasant feeling grumbled in her stomach. She bit her lip. If she came home late, her mom and dad would fuss over her even more. Ever since **that** time they'd become so overprotective. They fussed whenever she went out or came back in. Actually they fussed about everything she did. Over time it made her dread being home, not wanting to deal with her parents behavior. She glanced at Izzy and thought of an idea.

"Hey, do you mind if I come with you to help?" she asked hopefully. She'd still have to go home at some point, but at least she could avoid it for a while. Izzy looked at her surprised.

"Oh, but why?" he wondered. Skyy plastered a smile on her face.

"Just because it'll be hard for you to carry all the food back home yourself right?" she said. She gave him a hopeful look. He looked skeptical and for second Skyy thought he would decline, but instead he smiled back.

"Sure, I could use the help," he said happily. They walked out of the school together and Tai gave Skyy an odd look as she left with Izzy instead of with him. But he seemed to shrug it off, waving a lazy goodbye back at her.

As she walked Skyy had to rest Pleomon in an old over-the-shoulder bag so she wouldn't look so conspicuous in Skyy's arms. Skyy didn't exactly want it to look like she was carrying around a stuffed animal. She was 13, it would be embarrassing to be caught wandering around in public with a kid's toy.

Skyy sighed in relief as she walked. Pleomon had fallen asleep in her bag so she didn't fumble around awkwardly inside.

Summer was in full bloom with it coming to the end of June. Summer break would start in a month and Skyy was looking forward to forgetting about school for 6 long weeks. By this point in time, if she had still been going to school in Canada, it probably would already be summer break and she would've just finished her school year. Whereas now that she had returned to Japan, it was just the first term of school that was ending. Second term would start at the end of August. In Japan there were three school terms. The first, which started at the beginning of April and went until the end of June, and then they were off for summer break for six weeks, and then second term would start early September. Christmas break was around Christmas/New Year's time, for a week, and then third term would start and would go until the end of March. Then they got a week off and after that the new school year would start again. It was a lot of time in school, but Skyy was more used to that then the usual two semester schooling system she had in Canada. It didn't seem like **enough** school to her.

Skyy also had to admit she liked returning to wearing school uniforms. She had gone to an elementary school that wasn't in her neighborhood, so she hadn't gone to school with Tai and the others like she probably would have if she had gone to the elementary school next to her current middle school. Her elementary school had uniforms, but the elementary school her friends had gone too didn't have them. They only started wearing uniforms in middle school. Skyy liked being able to blend in with her classmates, and that people would recognize immediately what school she came from just by her clothes. Tai always complained about them, he always wore is improperly. Like not buttoning up all the buttons, purposely forgetting his necktie at home, or he wouldn't wear it correctly and it would just hang around his neck, untied. Skyy and Sora would scold him about it but it seemed to go in one ear and out the other.

Skyy didn't mind the flow of wearing a uniform skirt, and because it was warmer they had switched to their summer uniform and she got to wear a T-shirt. The fall/ winter uniforms were pretty much the same but the t-shirt was swapped for a long sleeved shirt. Boys were pretty much the same, wearing T-shirts in summer and long-sleeved shirts with jackets in the winter, keeping the uniform pants on all year-round. Skyy didn't like that girls had to wear skirts in the winter so she used to wear leggings or leg warmers to protect her legs from the harsh cold. But since it was summer she'd rather wear a skirt then anything.

Skyy breathed in the fresh air as her and Izzy walked in a comfortable silence, chatting occasionally until they reached the nearby supermarket. They were hit with a blast of cool air as they walked through the sliding doors and Izzy began shuffling in his pocket for his shopping list. Skyy peeked at the paper curiously.

"What do you need to get?" she asked. Izzy twisted his mouth to the side in thought.

"Hmm, she wants to make some summer dishes, Hiyashi Chuka I think she said? And some other side dishes…" Izzy sighed as his eyes raked over the long list of ingredients again. "Also she wants some other foods for the rest of the week's dinners," Izzy finished and he grabbed a shopping cart and wheeled it over. Skyy took the list and read the first item.

"Daikon…that'll be in the vegetable section right?" she said Izzy nodded and they made their way over to the produce isles. They glided the cart around the store as they picked up what they needed and slowly the cart got fuller and fuller. Skyy laughed when she finally noticed how large their food load had gotten.

"And you said you'd be able to handle this?" she teased. Izzy rolled his eyes.

"I would've found a way, but I appreciate the help," he smiled.

"Do you always go grocery shopping for your parents?" she asked. Izzy shook his head.

"No, mom only makes me go out every now and then when she's too busy to," he explained. Skyy clasped her hands behind her back.

"We used to go out with my mom shopping when we were small, but not so much anymore," Skyy almost whispered and a nostalgic expression passed over her features. Izzy raised an eyebrow.

"We? Who's we?" he asked curiously. Skyy almost froze on the spot. Had she said that? 'We'? Skyy bit her lip and her eyes slid to the ground.

"Me…and my sister I mean," she said. Izzy's eyes widened.

"You have a sister? I never knew that!" he said, joyfully surprised. He leaned on the handle bars, crossing his arms and leaning closer to her. "What grade is she in?" he asked innocently. A pained expression filtered into her eyes and Izzy suddenly felt like he had said something he shouldn't have. Before he could apologize though, Skyy whipped around so her back was facing him.

"It doesn't matter," she quipped quickly and walked ahead. Izzy stood there feeling quite guilty with himself and clutched the handle bars tightly. He bit his lip trying to think of a way to ease the situation. He glanced up at her as she perused the shelves of food and decided to just change the subject.

"It's a pain sometimes but I rather like shopping alone, gives you some quite time to just think about anything and everything," Izzy sighed, plastering a fond smile on his features. Skyy sighed lightly in relief at the change in subject. Izzy noticed and brightened a bit. "But I guess in cases like these it's nice to have company," he added.

A smile creeped onto Skyy's lips. "Yeah, I suppose so."

Izzy looked at her for a moment before shaking his head back into focus. "So! What's next?" he asked and Skyy looked at his list again.

"Umm, we still need some chicken, and ham," she said and they made their way over to the meat section.

Skyy inwardly frowned. Why had she said "we"? She shouldn't have said that. At least Izzy had the sense to change the subject though. She did not want to talk to him about her sister. She didn't want to talk to anyone about her sister.

When they picked up some salmon they wheeled over to another isle and as Izzy read out the ingredient Skyy scanned the shelves for it. As she looked she glanced at Izzy who was watching her calmly. He smiled at her quickly and Skyy found herself smiling back before looking up the food racks for some soy sauce.

Suddenly, a group of boys that looked about their age wandered up sniggering.

"Well, if it isn't little Izumi Koushiro from elementary school!" one of the guy's in the group drawled, coming up to Izzy. Skyy looked at them, her eyebrows furrowing together as Izzy stiffened and glowered at the floor.

"Remember us?" another guy laughed and reached out to ruffle Izzy's hair. He ducked away and the guy held his hands up. "Hey, hey, no need to be touchy, we haven't seen you in a while! Still waste your time on that stupid computer of yours?" The guys laughed. Skyy didn't like their tones, and it appeared Izzy wasn't too fond of these guys either.

Skyy hadn't really had much experience with bullying. Back in Canada she kept to herself a lot and really only ever talked to her friend Jeremy. It seemed the children in her school either silently bullied or just never bothered themselves with it. She remembered bullying being much harsher when she lived in Japan. She had never been personally targeted, but she had heard of what had happened to other students in her classes.

The group of boys in front of her now looked like typical student thugs and it seemed from the way they were speaking to Izzy that he had past experience with them. Skyy sized them all up. They were all bigger then her, and bigger then Izzy. If a fight broke out they wouldn't win, that was for sure. Also there were four boys and only two of them. The odds were against them.

"Aww, look he's trying not to look at us," the first guy laughed. "it seems little Koushiro still thinks he's too good to talk to us, just because you got special permission to enter middle school early you think your hot stuff huh?" the guy wrapped an arm around Izzy's shoulders and Izzy tried desperately not to look at him, his fists clenching so tightly around the shopping cart's handle bars that they turned white.

"so Izumi, are you still madly in love with your laptop or have you come off of that high horse you think you're on and realized what a useless brainiac you are?" the guy sneered and Izzy opened his mouth to argue.

"Are you stupid? How can a brainiac possibly be useless? That doesn't make sense," Skyy spoke up. The boys all looked over at her, only now seeming to realize she was there. Izzy looked at her in shock, his mouth snapping shut and his eyes wide open. The guy who had his arm around Izzy's shoulders whistled and his eyes raked up and down Skyy's body non-discreetly. Skyy glared at his lingering gaze and flipped her hair behind her back.

"You should think before you throw insults at people that don't make sense, you wouldn't want us to realize that your brain must be no bigger than baby's fist, would you?" Skyy grinned.

"And what do we have here little miss?" the guy drawled and his friends chuckled. They seemed to enclose themselves a bit closer to her and Skyy grounded her feet to the floor.

"Just what do you have against Izzy? You have no right coming up to him and treating him like this," she spat. The guy raised his eyebrow.

"Ohh? We were just reminiscing with an old friend," the guy lied. Skyy snorted.

"Sure you were."

"Well, aren't we a fiery little miss? Where'd you land such a cute chick Koushiro? Isn't she a little out of your league?" the guy laughed, turning back to Izzy. Izzy turned and glared at the guy. "What did you do huh? Did you pay her to be your little girlfriend? How much?" the guy said darkly.

Skyy made a sound of disgust and lurched for the guy's arm. She twisted it in the opposite directions which caused it to twist behind his back. The guy yelped in pain as Skyy pinned his arm to his back.

"Izzy is smart, and confident, and honest! He'll have way more success than any of you idiots combined and I'm with him because I want to be!" Skyy hissed. She shoved the guy forward and he fell into his friends, who scrambled to get him back to his feet. The guy scoffed and shook of his friends' hands off angrily.

"What did you say?" he asked, glaring at her. Skyy met his glare with just as much venom. Izzy sucked in a breath angrily and stepped forward, raising his arm.

"Leave her alone," he said, using his arm to shove the guy away as much as he could. The guy grabbed Izzy's arm and twisted it around and out of the way as if it was just an annoying twig, causing Izzy to yelp in surprise and pain.

Skyy quickly snapped to attention and raced forward, kicking the guy in the crotch as hard as she could. The guy screamed out as he fell back onto his friends and Skyy stumbled back onto her feet, huffing in surprise at her impulsive move. Izzy stared wide-eyed at the heap of fools on the floor.

"**Fuck**! You Bitch!" the guy croaked. They started trying to scramble to their feet and Izzy quickly flinched and grabbed Skyy's hand.

"Let's go!" he said and dragged her at top speed out of the store before the idiots had the time to realize which direction they'd gone in.

They're uniform shoes slammed against the pavement as they booked it down the streets. Skyy fumbled behind Izzy but his hand firmly held onto her own. They ran for what seemed like forever until they finally halted about four blocks from Skyy's apartment building. They both crouched over to the side of the sidewalk and heaved for breathes of air.

They both glanced up at each other, pausing for a moment. They were both tired and had a good sheen of sweat on their foreheads and bright red cheeks from over exerting themselves. Skyy's leg muscles shook slightly as she stood and Izzy's seemed to be doing the same.

Suddenly Skyy's mouth twisted into a smile and at the same time, Izzy smiled as well. They both burst out laughing like maniacs and several people walking by gave them odd expressions and rushed by. Skyy clutched at her stomach and Izzy straightened up, running a hand through his maroon hair and sighing loudly.

Just then Skyy felt her bag wiggling around and Pleomon's angry head burst out. "Just what the **hell** are you running around for Skyy! I was trying to **sleep** you know!" Pleomon growled loudly. Many passerby's stopped in shock and Skyy quickly shoved Pleomon's head back into her bag.

"You idiot! People will **see**!" she hissed and Pleomon grumbled insults from inside the bag. Skyy had forgotten about her poor digimon. She had probably been shaken around quite a lot when Skyy was running. Skyy sighed in relief as the shocked pedestrians began to continue on their way and she smiled nervously at Izzy, who mimicked her expression.

"That was close," Izzy mumbled. Skyy nodded. They continued walking when Izzy suddenly groaned and covered his face with his hands.

"Aw man, that's so embarrassing," Izzy droned. Skyy raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Surely you've had mishaps in public with your digimon before as well right?" she asked but Izzy shook his head.

"Not that."

"Then what? Running away from a fight?" she grinned. Izzy frowned.

"Being saved by a girl," he pouted, crossing his arms. "It should be the other way around shouldn't it?" he sighed shaking his head. It was more of a statement than a question to be answered. Skyy rolled her eyes.

"Oh please, you can't expect me to stand there and not say anything," she grumbled.

"I guess, someone like you would have to say **something**," he chuckled. Skyy grinned.

"So who were they anyway? Old classmates with nothing going for them?" she asked. Izzy nodded.

"Yeah, it's kind of lame, but they used to tease me in elementary school," Izzy scowled to himself, trying to hide an embarrassed blush. "They were in the same grade as me until this year now that I've skipped ahead." Skyy snorted.

"They just wish they actually knew shit, people like them have no class," she sniffed. Izzy grinned.

"And you do?" he joked. Skyy glared at him.

"Hey, I have class thank you very much, I don't bully people, that's for losers," she huffed. Izzy just smiled at her, which made her glare disappear.

"I was just kidding," he sighed. Skyy nodded to herself and they began walking casually towards the apartment buildings. They were quiet for a moment before Izzy spoke up. "Hey, did you mean what you said?"

"Hm?"

"When you said I'd have more success and all those things," Izzy asked awkwardly. Skyy looked at him, then up to the sky thoughtfully. She paused before answering.

"Of course I did," she shrugged. Izzy watched her with a slight look of surprise on his face. "You** are** smart and honest, and you're really nice. All in all I think you're a pretty cool guy, why would I lie about that," she said simply. Izzy blushed self consciously and laughed lightly.

"Cool? Usually guys like Tai and Matt get those kinds of comments," Izzy mumbled, scratching the back of his head. Skyy just laughed at him.

She hadn't been lying. Guys like Izzy were pretty rare. There were many guys in her grade that slacked by and didn't care about grades. It was better to get the grades during school while you still could so you at least have a few good options to live by the rest of your life. Izzy was a rare few who had a good head on his shoulders. Skyy respected that and would stick up for him in any way she could.

She had to admit to herself though that guys who were honest and smart attracted her a lot. Guys who actually had something good going for them and actually cared about the people close to them. Though she wasn't quite sure if she was attracted to Izzy or not. Yes he had a nice face and qualities she admired…well anyway whether she was attracted or not didn't matter. She didn't care about relationships or things like that. She wouldn't worry herself over such things.

They fell back into casual conversations, laughing and chattering away. Until a woman passed by them and whispered to her friend what a cute couple they were. Both of them stopped mid sentence and stopped walking. They looked at each other in silence for a long moment before they both blushed and looked away.

"She said…" Izzy started and Skyy nodded.

"…yeah."

"W-we don't want people getting the wrong idea…" Izzy mumbled quietly and Skyy looked at her hands. She suddenly felt awkward and didn't know quite what to say. Her and Izzy a couple? How on **earth** had it seemed that way? That was a silly conclusion.

The sound of a ringing phone cut through the thick silence like butter and Izzy perked up, recognizing his ring tone. Skyy watched him fumble for his phone. When he read the name on the screen a look of annoyance flashed over his features. He flicked open the phone and answered.

"Akemi…" he greeted and a sickingly loud and sugary voice filtered through the receiver. Skyy pouted and glared at the ground. She folded her arms and the waves of annoyance that had plagued her at the festival a week ago came back full force. Skyy listened to Izzy quip to his cousin about "getting home already". Skyy kicked at the pavement until Izzy finally hung up. He let out an exasperated sigh and massaged his temple as if to sooth a sudden headache.

"You're cousin's still visiting?" Skyy assumed. Izzy nodded once.

"Yeah, she's leaving soon though, in a few days," he muttered. For some reason Skyy brightened at that thought. Izzy glanced at his watch and frowned.

"It's getting late; I'll have to get groceries tomorrow morning before school…" Izzy said quietly. Skyy bit her lip and glanced around.

"Well, I'd better be going home then," she said and made a move to walk away but Izzy grabbed her arm lightly.

"Don't be silly, I'll walk you home," he said it as if it was common sense. Skyy nodded, giving in surprisingly easily.

"Okay."

The sun was setting as they turned and walked towards the direction of Skyy's apartment building. She felt a little bit bad because she knew it would be almost dark by the time Izzy got home. She would have to remind herself to phone and apologize to Izzy's mother. It was also her fault that they hadn't gotten the groceries. It was the least she could do.

When they finally reached her apartment complex Skyy turned to say goodbye to Izzy at the bottom of the elevator lift. Izzy bowed awkwardly.

"Bye, Tsutsumi," he said quickly. Skyy laughed and poked his forehead when he straightened up.

"You're weird. You can call me by my first name you know, everyone else does," she smiled brightly. She had been calling him by his first name for a while now. Izzy blushed and seemed dazed until he finally snapped back and stuttered out the proper goodbye.

"Ah, well…bye…S-Skyy," he stuttered, blushing bright red. Skyy's smiled widened.

"See? Its better that way," she said and waved goodbye before disappearing into the waiting elevator, leaving Izzy standing there with another dazed expression on his face.

* * *

Later that night after helping clean up the dinner dishes Skyy stretched herself out on her bed in her PJs and fanned herself lightly with a paper fan. She watched her ceiling fan spin around with a blank expression. Pleomon was playing with a bouncy ball on the ground which made Skyy slightly wary. She'd get mad if Pleomon knocked over her paint supplies.

Suddenly Skyy thought of something and rolled over onto her stomach. She crawled over to her desk and picked up her cell phone, flicking it open and dialing a familiar number. She slouched and leaned against the desk as she waited for the recipient to answer and watched Pleomon from the corner of her eye.

"Skyy? What's up?" Tai's voice answered. Skyy smiled to herself.

"Hey, I just wanted to ask, when are we going to the Digital world next?" she asked. There was a shuffling sound on the other end before Tai answered.

"Huh? Why ask me, why not ask Izzy?" he asked. Skyy frowned. True. Why hadn't she asked Izzy?

"Oh, I don't know…I thought you'd know," she replied simply.

"Well, as far as I know, it's the same schedule we've been following since we started. Just keep going as much as we can and getting rid of those seekers, we can go after school tomorrow if your both not too tired," Tai sighed bordly. Skyy twisted her mouth to the side.

"Do you think we'll find out the darkness's weakness anytime soon?" she asked.

"No, we can't even get near the guy with all those seekers surrounding him. Bastard," Tai cursed. Skyy laughed.

"And you said I had the bad mouth," she teased.

"Oh whatever, it's just you rubbing off on me," Tai countered. Skyy laughed again.

"Maybe so," she sighed. She stretched out her legs lazily on her bed and snuggled into her cushions.

"Hey, change of subject, what'd you and Iz get up to today? Did you go on a date?" Tai asked evilly. Skyy frowned.

"No we did not thank you very much. I was helping him with some grocery shopping, that's all," Skyy said, trying to ignore sudden scenarios of her and Izzy on a date that floated to the surface of her mind.

"Aw, too bad, that would have been an interesting development," Tai said in a disappointed tone.

"Well, don't get your hopes up then," Skyy said quickly. But then she became quiet. It wasn't like there was anything wrong with Izzy. He would probably make a very nice boyfriend for someone. But like she'd thought before, she wasn't interested in those kinds of relationships.

"I'm not, I've just noticed you've gotten closer to the kid lately, that's all," Tai replied. Skyy sighed.

"Well I can't deny that I guess. I don't mind him anymore," she confessed. She could imagine Tai raising an eyebrow at this and waited for his inevitable next question.

"Oh? And you minded him before?" Skyy stretched her toes out and looked at her ceiling fan again.

"Well, I thought he was just some weird, nerdy kid. But getting to know him he's actually pretty interesting," Skyy tried to keep her explanation simple so Tai wouldn't have any evidence to tease her and Izzy's friendship anymore. Tai made a sound as if to agree with her.

"Yeah, he's pretty cool. We'd be lost without him as digidestined though," Tai laughed which made Skyy smile.

"I can see that, you'd be pretty useless huh?" Skyy teased.

"Hey, don't say that," he grumbled and Skyy laughed softly. "So what are you doing this weekend?" Tai asked casually. Skyy thought for a moment before remembering.

"Mimi is coming to visit so Sora wanted to go out with her and shop around downtown Harajuku," Skyy said. Skyy had met the pinkette once before and her boisterous personality shocked Skyy. But she really was a bright and beautiful girl and Skyy rather enjoyed her company.

Tai coughed nervously on the other end of the phone. "o-oh?" he stuttered. Skyy raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked. Tai squeaked.

"Nothing! Just… um, could I ask you something?" his voice became small. Skyy frowned, what was he going on about?

"Shoot."

"Well, you're good friends with Sora right?" he asked nervously.

"Oh? And why does this matter?" she asked and Tai's breathing became more nervous.

"W-well, you talk about girl stuff right? Like stuff about boys right? Well, has she maybe said anything about anyone in particular?" Tai asked through much stuttering. Skyy grinned like the Cheshire cat and a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes.

"Taichi Kamiya, are you asking me if Sora has told me whether or not she likes you?" she asked bluntly and Tai made another surprised squeaking sound before quickly replying.

"That's not what I'm saying! I was just curious that's all!" Tai said in a flustered voice. Skyy laughed.

"So you like her then?" she asked. The other end became quiet. Skyy thought he'd hung up on her for a second before his voice finally replied.

"Maybe."

Skyy blinked stupidly. He'd actually told her.

She didn't expect that.

Skyy assumed he'd brush it off or possibly change the subject. Had he really trusted her enough to tell her something like this? Had she and Tai become so close that he'd tell her secrets like this so casually?

She visited his house constantly since that first time she went over. He came to her house a few times but not many, for she thought it shocked her parents too much when she suddenly brought people home, let alone boys. She talked to him on the phone almost every night as well, talking about anything and everything until sometimes well into the night. They had a ridiculously large amount in common and both seemed to understand what the other's thought process was. Wherever Tai was Skyy seemed to be as well and vice versa.

Since when had it become that way? She wondered. When had they become so close? It happened without her even realizing. Was she this close with the others without realizing? No, it didn't seem to be the same. Skyy almost made an astonished sound before Tai's voice broke her out of her wandering thoughts.

"Skyy? Hellooo?" he drawled and Skyy shook her head back to attention.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something," she answered. Tai made a huffing sound.

"Geez, I confess to you who I've been crushing on and you're not even listening to me," he muttered sarcastically. Skyy smiled lightly.

"I was listening, I just realized something, that's all," she said. Tai laughed.

"What, you realized your undying love for me?" he joked. Skyy snorted.

"You wish," she said flatly.

"now Skyy, if I wished that I wouldn't be telling you I liked Sora now would I?" Tai countered in a lazy but sarcastic tone. Skyy twisted her mouth to the side thoughtfully.

"True, why'd you tell me anyway?"

"Hm?"

"I mean, isn't that personal?" she asked. Tai paused before speaking.

"You're the only one that knows. Besides, it's not healthy to keep stuff bottled inside, I had to tell someone to make it easier for me," Tai said dramatically, as if it was a physical pain.

"Glad to be your dumping ground then," Skyy said dryly. Tai chuckled.

"No, honestly? If I think about it, you're probably one of the most trustworthy people I know. And I do trust you. If I told Matt about it he'd just tease me about it, or probably accidently end up telling Sora. You're easy to talk to and I know you'd listen if I ever had any problems, just as I'd do with you, and you wouldn't go casually blabbing my business to people," Tai explained. Skyy had to intake a quick breath. He really felt that way about her? Somehow, that statement made her feel extremely touched. She smiled despite herself and hugged her pillow.

"Yeah, same here," she said happily. She could clearly envision Tai grinning on the other end.

"Cool. But you would tell me if something was up right? Like I said it's not good to keep stuff bottled up. So if you have any problems just let me know," Tai said in a brotherly tone. She could see why Kari admired her big brother so much. Skyy's smile became small and her eyes seemed to become unfocused.

"Yes," it was almost a whisper.

"Alright, good. Now let's talk about something else, this feelings stuff is killing me," Tai said as if he was disturbed by it. Skyy grinned.

"You started it."

They chatted only for about another half hour before they said their goodbye's and hung up. Tai's confession though still hung heavily in Skyy's mind. She turned out the lights and snuggled into her bed, bringing her sheets up to her chin. She stared at nothing in particular as she went over their conversation.

_But you would tell me if something was up right? Like I said it's not good to keep stuff bottled up. So if you have any problems just let me know._

Skyy closed her eyes. Should she tell him? She hadn't ever told anyone. No one had become close enough to her to know.

Her past. All the secrets she'd kept with her since she was 11. No one knew. But she trusted Tai. Just as he said he trusted her. The thought of telling him didn't bother her.

Skyy rolled over when a sudden pang of pain came from her wrist. Confused she slipped down her sleeve and was shocked to see a small, purple bruise adorning her forearm. When had she gotten that?

Her mind flitted to her encounter with those bullies today at the market. Had it happened then? But none of them had grabbed her. Izzy had grabbed her wrist when they left. But he hadn't been holding it remotely tightly enough for it to bruise. Skyy furrowed her eyebrows together in thought and poked lightly at the bruise. She winced when a flare of pain erupted as a result.

Weird. This was the third strange bruise she'd gotten this week. Was she **that** delicate? Skyy slipped her shirt sleeve back over her arm and snuggled back into her sheets. She'd have to remember to wear long sleeved shirts for a while. If her parents saw her with bruises they'd go ballistic. She didn't want to have to deal with that. It would only be troublesome. She also made a mental note to be careful. She knew she was sometimes clumsy but these bruises had come out of nowhere.

The last time she had gotten bruises like this…

…

…well that was a long time ago.

* * *

Izzy slouched in his computer chair, twisting his mouth from side to side as he mulled over a thought in his head. His laptop was on and humming and he had been in the middle of playing a trigonometry game before he became too distracted to keep playing.

He spun around in his chair absent mindedly and kept glancing at his cell phone. He went to reach for it but then stopped. He slouched back in his chair, crossing his arms and shaking his head. He spun around a few more times before looking at the clock.

10:30.

It wasn't too late was it? But he could always ask tomorrow…or not at all. Izzy frowned. He didn't really like that idea. Suddenly frustrated he groaned and rubbed his hands through his hair frantically until it became a spiky mess.

Would it be weird if he asked?

_Yes._

But he still wanted to.

Izzy glanced at his phone again, then at the time. 10:32.

Thinking it over for a few more seconds, he weighed the pros and cons. The cons seemed to be winning but the one pro that he could think of seemed worth it. Izzy eyeballed his phone for about a minute. He was looking at it so intently it might as well spontaneously combust. Finally Izzy nodded to his decision and grabbed his phone. He pressed in the phone number quickly before he got too nervous to back out and he felt his heartbeat quicken as the phone rang.

He hoped she was awake.

"Hello?" she answered. Izzy's face brightened.

"Kari! Sorry to call you like this," he stumbled over his words. The young girl on the other end laughed.

"Oh no problem! What's up, do you need something?" she asked. Izzy blushed and it took a second before he could answer her.

"Um, yes actually, I need a favour," he said in an octave higher than his normal voice. He was nervous. He hoped she would say yes, or else this would be terribly embarrassing.

"Sure, anything!" she replied brightly. Izzy felt his face flush and he took a deep breath to calm himself. Finally he mustered up the courage to ask his question.

"You know those pictures you took at the festival?"

"Yes?"

"Well, that time, you took a picture of Tsutsu- I mean, S-Skyy, in her yukata right?" his voice was getting higher.

A pause.

"…yes?" he could tell from her voice that she was grinning. Dammit. His face got hotter and he closed his eyes so he could focus.

"Um….d-do you have another copy of it?"

"Of course! I can make many copies! How many do you need?" she was teasing him.

He groaned inside his head.

"… J-Just one."

* * *

**End of chapter 6. **

**Bahahaha.**

**Izzy's so cute.**

**Next chapter: ****Realizations**


	7. Realizations

Digimon Adventure: Connections

Chapter 7: Realizations

The sound of pencil lead scribbling against notebook paper filled the silence of Tai's bedroom as Skyy kicked her legs back and forth absent mindedly. She lay on her stomach on Tai's carpet with her notebooks and textbooks splayed around her and headphones lodged in her ears. Tai sat slouched over his desk and by the scratching movement of his own pencil Skyy assumed he was doodling instead of actually doing his homework. As Skyy finished writing the last character in a sentence Tai's door creaked open and his mom's head poked in. Both teens looked at her and she smiled warmly and held out a tray of some brown looking lumps. Cookies, maybe?

"Hey guys, are you hungry? I made some oatmeal cookies," so they were cookies. Strange looking cookies, but cookies nonetheless. Skyy perked up and took out an earphone but Tai made a disturbed face.

"No thanks mom," he said and turned away. Skyy frowned at him and pushed herself off of the ground.

"Don't worry Mrs. Kamiya, I'll have some!" Skyy said brightly and Tai's mom happily handed the plate over to her after sending Tai a glare. When his mom left, Tai gave Skyy and incredulous look.

"You seriously gonna eat those?" he asked. Skyy nodded.

"Why not? Your mom made them, it's not like they're poisoned," Skyy argued. Tai just raised his eyebrows.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," he said, slouching in his chair and crossing his arms. He watched expectantly as Skyy picked up and decently sized lump and took a large bite out of it.

Now Skyy was just as normal as any other person, so she liked sweets. Especially cookies. She enjoyed almost all types of cookies; rarely did she ever dislike them. So she took a large bite expecting nothing more than a very yummy mouthful of oatmeal cookie goodness. Sure they looked funny, but she didn't judge books by their covers. Besides, most home-made oatmeal cookies came out looking like monstrous lumps anyway. But when she took that bite of that one cookie, it was unlike anything she'd ever tasted.

Skyy was quiet and Tai waited for her reaction. She blinked a few times as the taste registered in her mouth.

Then she leaned over and spat the contents of her mouth back on the plate and made a very displeased choking sound. Tai grinned triumphantly.

"Told you," he jeered. Skyy found a tissue and furiously wiped at her tongue.

"What the _**hell **_did she bake these with? _**Tar**_!" Skyy spat as Tai laughed at her misfortune. He spun around in his chair with an air of righteousness.

"I told you my mom isn't as good a cook as you think, Kari and I have adapted, but you my dear, are still new to this," he said sarcastically. Skyy glared at him.

"Who else have you let her poison?" she asked and she threw out the cookie bits into Tai's trash can.

"Not many, Izzy experienced it once when she made us some beef jerky shakes, but most others were pre-warned and avoided it," Tai said, "and don't throw those there, they'll make my room smell funny."

"Well, I've been warned, I won't make the same mistake," Skyy rolled her eyes and leaned down to continue her homework. Tai picked up his soccer ball with his foot and balanced it on the top of his toes bordly, avoiding returning to his own homework. After a minuet he lightly kicked the ball onto his bed and spun around to face his desk. He slumped over for a bit before sighing dramatically and leaning back in his chair. Skyy grinned to herself, she knew what was coming.

"Hey, do you wanna go out for a bit? Take a breather and walk around, my brain hurts," Tai asked hopefully. Skyy smirked to herself and dropped her pencil.

"Yeah, I'm sick of this, let's go," she said and swiftly leapt to her feet.

They snuck out of Tai's apartment quickly and wandered down to the piers close by. Their apartment building was a part of a group of buildings called the Searea Apartment Complexes in Odaiba that were located between the big Ferris wheel and the beaches to the bay. If one walked down to the beaches across the road they'd reach some piers eventually. Tai and Skyy wandered down and sat themselves at the edge of one empty pier with their legs dangling down over the dark water. It was nighttime now so there was a cool breeze but was warm enough to not have to wear a jacket. The lights of the city danced on the surface of the water and the lone lights on the pier shrouded them in a light spotlight, their silhouettes distorted by the water. Tai had grabbed an handful of stones before and was trying to skip them across the water.

Skyy had thought a lot about telling Tai about her past. And when she realized how close to her he really was she decided it was safe to trust him and tell him what happened. The subject always seemed to worm its ways into simple conversations and every time she'd avoided it. She suspected that Tai had gotten suspicious of her but had decided not to ask further. Skyy knew she had nothing to lose by telling him, and maybe having one person understand would give her some slight weight off of her shoulders. This was mostly the reason she had asked to come over to Tai's house and do homework, because like hell she did it because she actually thought he'd be able to _**help**_ her with her schoolwork. She'd planned on bringing up the subject but wasn't quite sure how. She wasn't one for starting serious conversations and still had trouble maintaining them. She ran over a bunch of scenarios in her head to bring it up but all seemed for naught and ultimately, just silly.

Skyy kicked her legs back and forth lightly and took a deep breath of the fresh air. They sat quietly for a moment, lost in their own thoughts until Skyy could feel Tai's gaze on her. She heard his voice before she turned to look at him.

"Do you remember when we first met?" he asked. Surprised by the question and a little taken aback, she thought for a moment before a wry smile cracked onto her lips. Her amusement was more for the content of the question then the actual memory. It was a funny question, she thought.

"You mean at school?" she asked. Tai shook his head and looked out at the water thoughtfully.

"No, when we were 11," he said. Skyy winced, trying to remember. Had they met when they were 11? She could only remember meeting him at school. He had been staring her down all period, and then ignored her after. But if they had met before, it would've explained why he'd been staring at her so intently when they met in the classroom. Skyy raked through her brain. 11, when she was 11…a lot had happened _**that**_ year. She didn't remember meeting anyone. Though speaking of when she was 11, this would be a good chance to bring up what happened to Tai.

The night that started it all back before Skyy had moved to Canada. The night when Skyy had gone to her bedroom alone once again, and the night that her parents got the call from the doctor and rushed out in a flurry. It was the night when her house became forever empty, no matter how many people were inside it. She may have been young, but that hadn't meant she didn't know what was going on.

Then suddenly a memory flickered to the fore front of her mind and she let out a little gasp. "On the balcony! Were you that boy with the garbage bag?" she asked. As she thought of that night she did seem to remember a boy with ridiculously big brown hair pass her when she had wandered outside. A wide grin spread across Tai's face.

"I thought you were such a weird girl, and then when I talked to you, you started bawling," Tai laughed. Skyy smiled.

"Wow…that was you? Well it makes sense, since we moved back into the same apartment we'd lived in previously," Skyy mumbled, "what a coincidence."

"I have to admit though, you scared me a bit, I had no idea what to do so I ran back inside. Then when I saw you come into our classroom a couple months ago I was_** so**_ sure you were the same girl! But I was still a little weirded out so I didn't think to approach you," Tai laughed nervously. Skyy nodded. Suddenly feeling cold Skyy brought her knees up to her chin and rested her arms around her legs. Tai glanced at her hesitantly. She could instantly guess what he wanted to know.

"You want to know why I was crying?" she asked quietly. Tai hesitated before answering.

"Yeah, but I didn't know if I should ask," he said cautiously. Skyy gave him a small smile.

"It's okay, I planned on telling you anyway," and instantly he perked up, giving her his full attention. She almost wanted to laugh at his obvious eagerness. "I was crying because my sister was sick."

Tai frowned, "sick with what?" Skyy paused before mentally preparing herself to speak.

"Leukemia, she was diagnosed with it when we were in grade 3," Skyy began. "That night, my parents got a call after putting me to bed, she had already been admitted to the hospital at this time, and the doctor told them she suddenly wasn't doing well. I could hear them through my bedroom door and I heard them rush out of the house. After they left I suddenly felt empty and I knew something was wrong.

"Before I knew it I was standing outside the front door, I wasn't even thinking. I didn't know what to think. It was until you talked to me and brought me back to reality that the weight of the situation truly hit me and I just started crying," Skyy spoke softly, and Tai listened quietly. Skyy's eyes flickered to the water as she continued. "I think I knew, somewhere inside myself, I knew she was going to die."

Tai looked at the ground. He looked like he wanted to say something. Apologize or comfort her, but when he didn't she continued, "I kept crying until the cold forced me inside. The next morning my parents came home crying and told me what happened. I lost half of myself that night and even now I'm incomplete," Skyy breathed. The silence of the city night filled their ears after Skyy finished and it somehow seemed surreal.

She waited in silence and let Tai fully understand her story. Several minutes passed before he took a deep breath and asked his next question.

"What is her name?" he asked, almost a whisper. His voice was full of caution and apprehension. He didn't want to tread on any sensitive ground. Skyy just smiled fondly and tears finally stung at her eyes.

"Yuki…her name is Yuki," her breath hitched in her throat as she answered and she suddenly felt like bawling her eyes out. Even her sister's name still had this much affect on her emotions. Skyy took several deep breaths to calm herself and keep herself from crying in front of Tai. She should have known she'd turn out like this if she talked about this with him. She'd told herself she wouldn't become a bumbling idiot but now she couldn't help the large lump that was stuck in her throat. Tai glanced at her before passing an arm over her back and rubbing it fondly, helping her to calm down. "We were twins; we two were exactly the same." She choked.

Tai looked down sadly. "You're sick too aren't you?" he said and Skyy shot her head up to look at him in surprise.

How did he know? Skyy instantly felt a little scared. She hadn't told him, how did he know? "…H-…how?"

"I heard…I heard from some old women after you left that you were sick as well, that's why you moved?" he asked. The conversation was foggy in his brain, but he did remember hearing those old ladies talking about how Skyy's sister had died, and that they moved suddenly. Skyy nodded slowly, gulping down her shock and re-organizing her thoughts.

"Yeah, I was diagnosed with the same disease as Yuki about a month after, just before our 10th birthday. I wasn't as bad as Yuki so I got to stay home. But ever since I had been diagnosed as well our parents wanted to move to a country with better medical resources, so they had been planning the move whilst Yuki was in the hospital. But, she died right before we were to leave," Skyy explained. Tai bit his lip and his face was pinched. He looked…worried? Then Skyy smiled before ruffling his hair reassuringly. "Don't worry; I'm in remission now, which means I'm stable. If I stay in remission until mid September…I'll be cured," Skyy said, her voice getting quieter near the end.

Tai breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, giving her a soft expression, "that's good." Another rush of wind hit them and Skyy shivered. Tai gave her his jacket which took her by surprise but she snuggled into it for warmth anyway. She couldn't help but notice it wasn't as warm as Izzy had been when she sat next to him on the ferris wheel. But she quickly pushed that thought from her mind.

"Is that why you came back? Because you're better?" Tai asked. Skyy made a nonchalant hand gesture and shook her head.

"Sort of, we wanted to come back. As nice as Canada was, we wanted to come back to Japan. I grew up here and I guess my parents thought I would find more comfort here then there," she said. Tai grinned and suddenly reached over to give her a noogie. Skyy yelped and pushed his hands away frantically. Tai laughed when Skyy glared at him and rubbed her sore head.

"Well I'm glad you came back, it's no fun without you here," Tai teased and punches her shoulder lightly. Skyy rolled her eyes and brought his jacket closer around her, fighting down a smile. Tai chuckled again and Skyy rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

"So er- if you don't mind me asking," Tai started, Skyy opened her eyes. "Why do you never want to go home? You always stay behind at school, or stay over at my house until late. Not that I mind or anything, your cool to hang out with, but, don't your parents worry?" Skyy's face drooped a little.

"It's….hard being at home," she sighed.

"Why?"

"My…parents…ever since Yuki they're just so….over protective. It's suffocating!" Skyy said. "And because they're so busy being protective of me they don't take the time to actually get to know me. The other day my mom bought be grape juice because she said it was my favorite, when it isn't, I don't even like grape juice. Just little things like this, they don't know. No one does because they're too scared to deal with me because they think I might break or something."

Tai listened as Skyy got slightly more heated with her explanation. "Only Yuki knew that stuff, I'm sure my parents understood us more back then but it's gotten to the point where I don't remember them being any different just because they've treated me this way for so long now. Dinner is always silent and awkward and I never talk to them anymore because it's frustrating dealing with them. I know they care, but it's too much and I really wish they'd just stop looking at me like some weak, sick thing that they are scared of yet feel the need to fiercely protect," Skyy huffed. "So in short, I just avoid them because that's the easiest way to deal with them…"

"Oh…well your still free to come over whenever if you feel too, uh, suffocated," Tai grinned. Skyy gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Thanks Tai."

Suddenly she felt a weight lift off of her shoulders. He had taken it well and didn't end up annoying her with too many questions. Though she had assumed he wouldn't which was another factor to why she had decided to talk to him about her sister. She felt at ease, she felt she'd done the right thing. Leaving him in the dark for too long would make it awkward if she'd told him a lot later down the road. Skyy slowly looked up at him, he was looking out at the water calmly. Skyy frowned.

"You won't tell anyone, right?" she asked in a small voice. Tai grinned and winked at her.

"Not a chance kid," he smiled boyishly which caused Skyy to smile in reaction. She nodded in response and put her head back on his shoulder. He may not be as warm as Izzy, but it was still comforting.

Was this what it was like to have a brother? She wondered.

Skyy smiled.

She didn't mind the feeling.

* * *

Tai stared at his white ceiling as he pushed his soccer ball up into the air only to catch it, and then throw it up again continuously. Skyy had left about half an hour before and he was left to contemplate that night in silence. His mind ran over what Skyy had told him about her sister but somehow, things didn't seem to click. He sighed and frowned.

He had already known she'd had a sister who died, and that she was sick as well, though he admitted that information had always been at the far end of his thoughts. And it was nice to hear it all in detail from her own mouth. It told him that she was comfortable sharing this information with him. And she also trusted him enough for him not to tell anyone. And he wouldn't. It wasn't his business to tell. He was just glad she'd told him out of choice instead of him dragging it out of her unwillingly.

But even with all the detail in her story, there was still something off, he felt. He had been a little concerned with Skyy's behavior since the first time they met. It was only occasionally, but it was like she gave off warning signals and they told him to back off and not butt in. He couldn't help but be worried.

Things like how she'd freaked out when she'd first gone to the Digital World. Why had she said she couldn't do it? She said there were **circumstances** in her life that she had to** consider**. She said she couldn't get into anything "too **deep** right now", well what the hell did that mean? The story she'd told him didn't answer that question.

Also, when they had been talking about her crest virtue, she had reacted oddly when he'd told her she had the crest of life. She'd said that she didn't want such a terrible power and then she'd gone on about it being better to die quickly. Living in this twisted world was terrible, she'd said. Also when she had been talking to him tonight, he'd had an feeling that she wasn't telling him everything. There was something she was still keeping to herself and he wondered what was so different about it that it meant she couldn't tell him. He didn't like it. None of this related to one another and Tai still had a bad feeling in his gut.

He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. She wasn't telling him something. Something that needed to be known. It wasn't that he was butting in or trying to pry, but this seemed to be something much bigger then she let off and Tai just didn't like it. He wanted to know. He wanted to know what was going on in her head. Otherwise this dirty feeling in his gut would plague him. He bit his lip and shoved his ball a little too hard and it slammed loudly into the ceiling. Tai caught it and gripped it tightly for a second before allowing his hands to fall slack and letting the ball roll off on to the ground. He heard footsteps and then Kari softly opened his door.

"nii-chan, Is something wrong?" she asked, a hint of worry in her voice, "We heard a loud banging sound."

Tai sat up and smiled softly at his younger sister. "It's nothing, Kari. Don't worry, I'm fine. I just threw my ball too hard." He reassured her and she hesitated before nodding once.

"Okay," and she closed the door again. Tai lay back down and closed his eyes. He didn't even want to comprehend what it would be like if Kari had died from a disease, or from anything. He didn't even want to think about it. He thought he'd go crazy with grief and become deranged or something. Then suddenly something clicked in his brain. He bolted up and stared blankly ahead of himself.

Skyy had been like that. She said she'd lost apart of herself and it has never come back. Could this strange feeling he had about her be related to her sister's death in some way? Tai suddenly felt scared. Somehow he got a gut reaction that he wouldn't like what Skyy was hiding. He got a strange and cold sensation and it made him feel scared.

He needed to know.

_**Now.**_

* * *

Skyy had never been out for a "girls day", as Mimi described it, before. But from what she gathered, it consisted of continuous walking and perusing through shops accompanied with countless incompetent gossiping.

Mimi had come to Japan from America for the week to visit and not having seen Skyy in a long time she insisted on having a day just for girls along with Sora. Kari would have come as well but she was on a school trip to Kyoto. Skyy walked to the sounds of heels clacking against the pavement next to her and Mimi's obnoxious voice filling most of their conversations for long periods of time.

Skyy didn't have anything against the bright, pinkette haired girl, but she sure could talk. "Oh! We just have to go in here I haven't been in this store in ages!" Mimi squealed, stopping mid sentence when she recognized a store. She sped inside before they could discuss it further and Sora laughed as they followed her in. it was a clothing store, no surprise there, and had a lot of Japanese branded fashions. They must not have had them in America, Skyy assumed.

Skyy wasn't really partial to shopping. She was the kind of girl who only went shopping when she desperately needed to and didn't spend much time doing so. She went in, found what she needed and got out of there. After about half an hour she'd start to get cranky. But obviously Mimi was the opposite. She seemed to live in clothing stores and would spend several minutes with one outfit going over all the different aspects about it and inspecting every inch of it to make sure it suited her and looked good from every single angle imaginable. If it didn't, it was off in a second and the next one was thrown on. And when Mimi shopped she liked to try on _**many**_ clothes.

Skyy slumped in a chair as she waited and tried her best to give feedback for Mimi. It was mostly Sora who paid attention and would help Mimi to figure out whether the outfits she tried on were a _yay_ or a _nay_. As Sora leaned up against the closed change room with a few shirts draped over her arm she eyed Skyy as the blonde sat with her head in her hands, not trying at all to hide her bored expression. Sora smirked and snorted a small laugh.

"If you're bored you can just say so Skyy," she laughed and Skyy looked up at her as if she'd been snapped out of a deep train of thought.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't realize I was being obvious," Skyy said wryly. Sora shrugged.

"Don't worry, some people just aren't the shopping type, we can go get some lunch after this," Sora offered. Skyy perked up at that.

"Oh! Can we go to that small café down the street! I haven't been there in ages!" Mimi piped up from inside the change room. The two girls outside laughed.

"Sure, whatever you want Meems," Sora rolled her eyes. Skyy eyeballed the pile of clothes that was in Mimi's to-buy pile.

"Why are you buying so many clothes Mimi, do you really need this much?" Skyy asked, lifting up one shirt only to drop it back onto the pile.

"Of course! I need to be up with the latest fashions to impress the boys, and to make girls jealous of me!" Mimi said dramatically like it was her job. Skyy raised her eyebrows. This girl definitely wasn't a modest thinker.

"Mimi's addicted to boys, she must always be dressed to impress," Sora joked. Skyy nodded. "For me though, I prefer the friendly approach, the best way to get a guy is to become his friend first right?" Sora said as a fond smile splayed over her lips. Skyy looked at her curiously.

"Is that so?" Skyy muttered. Mimi suddenly popped her head out over the door.

"I know a couple of really cute American guys! I can introduce you Skyy!" Mimi said excitedly. Skyy scrunched her nose. Sora made a distasteful sound.

"Why would she want to date someone who lives on the other side of the planet?" Sora scolded and Mimi shrugged her shoulders, going back to changing. After a few more minutes Mimi changed back into her regular clothes and brought her haul to the counter to pay for it all. Sora leaned on the counter casually as they waited and looked upwards thoughtfully.

"Now if we were to get a guy for Skyy, he'd have to be cool. What kinds of boys do you like Skyy?" Sora asked. Skyy almost groaned. Did they insist on continuing this conversation?

"I don't care about relationships," Skyy sniffed and Sora frowned.

"That's no good," he said as if she had a bad taste in her mouth. "A good boyfriend means the world to a girl. The feeling of being in love is priceless," she said dreamily. Skyy almost gagged.

"Why do you two care about boys so much anyway, love can't be all the great," Skyy muttered. Sora held up and finger and gave her a serious expression.

"Oh but it is!" she insisted. "Love is a very extreme emotion! And one of the best! Sure it can cause pain, okay extreme pain, but when you're in love, nothing else matters except you and the one you love and you can't begin to describe the feeling of being a part of something so special and deep with someone else who feels the exact same!" Sora explained with her hands clasped together. Mimi whipped around as the cashier bagged her purchases.

"Yes! To be in love and be loved back is the spice of life! We're given these emotions to feel more alive right? They drive us to dream and do things we wouldn't do otherwise and therefore we are given countless opportunities to taste what it feels like to be truly alive! Doesn't it just get you excited? Love is what every girl drives for!" Mimi added passionately. Skyy stared at them with wide eyes. They were hopeless. Skyy shook her head.

"You guys are crazy," she said. And Sora shrugged.

"You'll understand one day dear," she sighed and patted Skyy's shoulder. Skyy raised an eyebrow and folded her arms.

"Oh? You say that like you've _**experienced**_ it, or _**are**_ experiencing it?" she asked slyly and Sora turned pink. She coughed and removed her hand.

"I'm not saying anything," she said tersely. Skyy grinned. Oh, what Tai would do if he was the one Sora liked? But Skyy wouldn't pry, she didn't see any reason to if Sora wasn't going to say it anyway. As Mimi grabbed her bags and pulled them off the counter Sora suddenly gasped as if she'd just had an epiphany. Skyy and Mimi looked at her expectantly.

"What if Skyy was to date_** Izzy**_!" she squealed. Mimi looked confused and Skyy's jaw dropped. What the hell! How had she come to that!

"Wait, didn't you just say if Skyy was to date someone, he'd need to be cool?" Mimi asked. Sora nodded.

"Oh yeah," she mumbled. Skyy frowned, suddenly feeling defensive. She wanted to argue back but instead she remained silent and just waited for Sora to continue. "I just thought because you two usually hang around each other a lot," the red head said airily.

"We do not," Skyy said quickly. Sora laughed.

"Well, you hang around him much more than the rest of us, I'm feeling left out," Sora feigned being hurt and Skyy rolled her eyes.

"I didn't know my presence was of such high value to you," Skyy said sarcastically. Sora grinned. Mimi put a finger to her cheek in thought as she listened to the two of them.

"Y'know, that's not such a bad thing," she said. Both Skyy and Sora looked at her. Realizing their confusion Mimi quickly perked up and explained. "I mean, well Izzy's not the most popular guy I have to admit. And with his personality he's a little hard to understand at first," Mimi began awkwardly. Sora nodded.

"Yeah I guess. I hate to say this but I probably wouldn't have ended up being his friend if it wasn't for what happened to us in the Digital World. He was just another really smart kid and because of that he seemed hard to approach. So most never really tried," Sora said a little sadly. Mimi looked sad too.

"Yeah, I probably wouldn't have given him a second glance…but once you get to know him it's really different!" she smiled brightly. "He was so smart and independent that it sort of warded people off, but now he's really changed! He's a really honest guy and he's nice to everyone," Mimi went on. Skyy raised an eyebrow. When did this turn into a conversation about Izzy's personality? But as she thought about it, what they had said about him seemed true. If she hadn't first gotten to know him because of the Digital World, she probably would have avoided him since on the outside he seemed intimidating because of how smart and straight forward he was. Skyy thought about how she acted with him now and vice versa and smiled to herself.

"I can see that," she piped up and Sora and Mimi turned their heads to look at her. Skyy jumped slightly under their gaze but continued. "Well, you said he was hard to approach and alone a lot when you were younger, so I think now that he's changed, when feelings do arise, like anger or joy, he's able to express them a lot more openly and honestly. And I feel like he would never hide or lie about his feelings, he's a very genuine person," the words tumbled out of her mouth as she spoke even though she had personally never thought about Izzy in such detail before. But as her own words registered in her mind she found herself wholly agreeing with them. Not that she was an expert in analyzing people, most likely the opposite if anything, but she felt most certain that her opinions of Izzy were correct. Lost in her thoughts Skyy didn't realize the silent and sly looks her friends were giving her. When Skyy finally looked over at them she jumped at their curling smiles.

"Ah, you must know him well then?" Sora asked and she flashed her teeth at Skyy in a grin. Skyy felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. She huffed and crossed her arms.

"Think nothing of it, it was just an observation, that's all," Skyy quipped and Sora poked her side annoyingly.

"You're very observant then aren't you?" she grinned. Mimi nodded in agreement. Both girls where grinning like Cheshire cats and Skyy glared at them with all her might. Sora finally sighed and waved her hand in the air as if to toss the unsaid accusations from the air.

"Well anyway, it's not like Izzy's ever paid much attention to girls anyway, always on his computer," she said, shrugging. Immediately Mimi pointed a finger in the air.

"But, I have noticed, since the last time I saw him, or should I say, since Skyy has joined the group, he's become a lot more alert and focused," she said. Sora quirked an eyebrow.

"And he wasn't before?"

Mimi shook her head, "that's not what I mean," she said. "He's become a lot more, I don't know, involved or something. He's been participating in a lot more social events with us then before, I don't know if Skyy did something but it's like he seems more eager to leave his computer and spend time with us then before," she explained and Sora nodded.

"Ah, I guess so, when I think about it I guess he has changed a little since Skyy joined," Sora said brightly. They both looked at Skyy expectantly as if she had some sort of opinion on the subject. Skyy just looked at them for a moment before shrugging.

"It's just because I'm some special key to saving the Digital World, that's the only reason he cares," she said bordly. Though she knew it was true, this seemed to truly disappoint her. She couldn't help it and didn't know exactly the source of the disappointment. But she felt almost hurt by her own words, as odd as that was. Both of her companions frowned is disapproval.

"I don't think so miss," Sora said wryly and suddenly her cell phone began filtering a popular Japanese pop song and she quickly rummaged through her purse to get it out. Mimi and Skyy waited patiently to see who was calling their friend and Sora's face lit up when she heard the recipient's voice.

"Matt! What's up?" she greeted brightly. Mimi and Skyy leaned a little closer to see if they could hear what Matt was saying but his voice was muffled and hard to hear. Sora leaned her phone away from the girls, scowling at them as if she was scolding them for eavesdropping with her eyes. Then her scowl disappeared.

"The computer room? Now?" she asked. She paused as she listened before replying. "Ok sure, we'll get there as quick as we can, don't leave without us!" she sang and shut off her phone. Mimi and Skyy looked at her curiously before she relayed what Matt had said. "He wants us all to come to the computer lab at school. Izzy found a cluster of suspicious seekers and he wants to get rid of them quickly. There are a lot so he needs a lot of us, are you up for it Skyy?" Sora asked, looking at Skyy. Skyy nodded in reply and Sora put her phone away.

The three girls quickly changed route and traveled towards the train station. They were in the Harajuku district so they took the train as far as they could until they had to take a taxi to go across Rainbow Bridge and into Odaiba. When they finally reached the computer lab in the elementary school they were the last ones to arrive. Mimi dropped all of her shopping bags onto a desk and slumped into a chair, fanning herself.

"Remind me not to buy so much next time," she breathed in a tired voice. Sora raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"Would that stop you from buying more?"

Mimi grinned, "Probably not."

When Skyy wandered into the room she was surprised to see almost everyone there, minus Kari unfortunately. Everyone looked ready to go and as she scanned all of them her eyes fell onto Izzy sitting in his computer chair with his face pinched in concentration as usual.

She didn't know why, maybe it was because they had been talking about him not so long ago, but a jolt suddenly went through her chest. She quickly hugged her arms around her mid-section as if to smother the feelings by using physical force and she refused to step closer to him. Izzy stood up swiftly and everyone halted their chatters to listen to him.

As per usual he explained the plan to them before they left. This specific group of digimon was on their way toward Primary village and from what Izzy understood they were looking there for eternal life and would destroy the place to ashes until they found it, which he knew they wouldn't. They were to go in and take them by surprise to gain any sort of upper hand right from the beginning. Then to keep that upper hand Skyy was to use Pleomon, who was conveniently already in the Digital World, and launch a series of multiple attacks to hit more than one seeker and break the barriers before they had chances to attack. Then the rest were to attack straight away and get rid of the seekers with a series of continuous barrage attacks. They had to be quick so the seeker digimon would be unable to react and attack back any deadly blows. This was the biggest group of seekers for them to attack to date and they couldn't mess up. And if they pulled this off, then they'd be one step closer to becoming strong enough to defeat the large darkness in the middle of the Digital World.

Everyone understood the plan and in a second the eight of them zoomed through the portal in the computer screen. Skyy felt like she hadn't been to the Digital World in a while so the taste of a battle with Pleomon was a little more exciting than normal. They all met up with their digimon quickly and they digivolved to their Champion levels. They were just outside the range of the seekers and decided to move in quickly to avoid detection. Izzy mapped out the most ideal route and they all mounted their digimon and set off. Skyy clutched on to Hotarumon's fur as she leapt through the air.

Hotarumon didn't exactly fly, like one with wings would, but instead she sort of leapt from air current to air current. She used the currents to leap through the air gaining altitude and riding the winds forward. Skyy got used to the jerky motions when riding on her digimon's back and it almost felt as natural to her now as riding a bike.

The group reached the seekers within the minute and Skyy and Hotarumon were first to make their move. Pleomon leapt up as high as she could in the air and seemed to survey the seekers from a bird's eye view. Skyy counted. About 27 seekers. That was a lot. She felt a little nervous but when she heard Hotarumon's growl of excitement her nervousness seemed to disappear. In a second Hotarumon rushed forward and it almost felt like they were freefalling until she was about a meter from the ground and she suddenly jumped onto a low air current. She sped forward and launched a series of fireballs from her throat at the seekers. As she delivered the attacks she darted straight into the crowd of digimon and darted between them like a fish, making sure each and every seeker got hit with one attack.

Though it didn't do much damage to them individually, their barriers came down with each attack and as soon as each seeker had been hit Hotarumon jumped from current to current back up into the air until she was high enough to be out of range. She completed all of this in about the span of 10 seconds and was huffing for breath as she rode the wind in the air. Skyy sat in shock at her partners speed and her fingers felt numb from clutching Hotarumon's fur so tightly the whole time. If she'd let go or loosened her grip for even a second she would have been screwed. Hotarumon laughed a throaty laugh.

"Didn't scare you there did I, Skyy?" she teased and Skyy frowned.

"You did not! Just surprised me is all!" she huffed in retort and Hotarumon laughed again. Down below the rest if the digidestined had already started landing blows to the surprised and confused seeker digimon and a mass of explosions could be heard as the attacks made contact. When Hotarumon caught her breath she leapt down and helped them with her own attacks.

It was strange though. Skyy had always gotten the feeling from every single digimon she'd ever met that they had souls, that they were alive. And she never doubted that they weren't. But when they fought these seekers, it was different. They didn't seem to have any life in them at all. Almost like puppets. Sure they moved and acted like they were alive, but Skyy felt no soul in them, no spark of life at all. Almost like they were defeating inanimate objects. She always got that vibe from them. She wondered if the others felt like that too.

Skyy gripped on tightly as Hotarumon used up all her strength to battle and it got to the point where her fingers and knuckles had started going white. Skyy bit her lip hard and Hotarumon span around to launch some fireballs at an enemy. Izzy had been right; this was proving to be very difficult. All the digimon tried their best and launched attack after attack without stopping. To Skyy the battle seemed to last hours but then again before she knew it, it was over and all the digidestined stood on high alert with their digimon ready for the defense. They stood silently in a cloud of smoke and the wind slowly blew it away to reveal all eight children.

There were no seekers in sight, which meant they'd all disintegrated. They all paused, just looking at each other before Tai leapt up into the air, yelling gleefully. "We did it! We did it guys!" he cheered boyishly and everyone broke out into smiles and grins. Their digimon de-digivolved and collapsed onto the ground, some falling instantly asleep from how tired they were. Pleomon curled around Skyy's shoulders and lay down, rubbing her cheek affectionately against Skyy's face.

"We beat them!" her digimon sing-songed tiredly. Skyy smiled fondly and patted her on the head. Everyone erupted into cheers and some, mainly Tai, were jumping up and down triumphantly.

"This is great! At this rate we can defeat the darkness in no time!" Izzy said, breathlessly excited. Tai wandered over and slapped Skyy over the back and laughed.

"That was awesome kid! Great work out there!" he said. Skyy smiled.

"I'm hardly a kid to you mister, and it was Pleo, not me," she said rolling her eyes. Tai just shrugged.

"Say what you want, I still think you did awesome!" he said and just then Sora rushed over and grabbed Skyy's hands, followed closely by Mimi.

"Thank you so much Skyy! You and Hotarumon were amazing at the start; because you were so fast we were able to beat them quickly!" Sora said and pulled Skyy into a hug. Skyy squeaked in surprise but lightly hugged her back. She couldn't help but feel they were false complements. Hotarumon was the one who fought and did all the work…she just _**hung on**_. Sora giddily squeezed Skyy's hands and jumped up and down like an elementary school kid. Skyy's arms waggled about like noodles but she just laughed at the red head.

Then suddenly, it hit her like a wave. Almost like she had been suddenly submerged in some strange whirlpool and it squished her insides around. Skyy's stomach squirmed nauseously and she felt like she was going to be sick. Her breathing became incredibly shallow and hoarse and her head felt light and empty. Spots clouded her vision and before she knew it she was on her knees and Sora and Mimi and screamed in fright.

Skyy felt like lead and fell to the ground like a rock. She landed on her knees and used her hands to prop herself up. The black and white spots created blind spots and her head began to spin. She suddenly felt a pair of warms hands wrap around her shoulders and assumed it was Tai. But, the hands were so warm…could they be?

"Skyy? What's wrong? Skyy are you okay?" his voice sounded distant and muffled to her ears and she gulped for air. After taking about half a dozen deep breaths she shakily sat up and raised her hand.

"I-I…I'm okay, I just felt a little dizzy," she lied. This definitely wasn't a case of dizziness. She closed her eyes for a minute and the fogginess started to clear about as quickly as it had come. Her nausea slowly faded to a light gurgle and her head became clearer. Izzy's worried face came into view and Skyy couldn't help but turn a bit pink. She leaned a little bit away from him and averted her gaze. "Really, I'm fine," she said. Izzy furrowed his eyebrows together.

"Maybe that was a little too much excitement for you? You should see the doctor just in case when we go back," he said. The way he said it made it seem more like an order then a suggestion though. Skyy just nodded in reply and inwardly groaned at what her parents' reactions would be. But she agreed with Izzy, maybe a visit to the doctor wasn't such a bad idea.

Skyy moved to stand up and Izzy let her use him as a crutch of sorts. She was a little shaky but the lead-like feeling from before had left and she felt normal again. But she stumbled about halfway and Izzy quickly jumped to catch her weight. The force of his grip caused her sleeve to slide up and he froze when the multitudes of bruises on her arm were revealed.

A chorus of gasps filtered around them as everyone saw Skyy's exposed arm. Skyy's eyes widened and she quickly tried to pull her sleeve down, but Izzy's grip was stone cold. Tai then lurched and grabbed her hand with quite a bit of force.

"What the hell is _**that**_!" he spat. Skyy bit her lip. Shit. They weren't supposed to see this, she was supposed to be more careful then that. Skyy turned and glared at Tai and yanked her arm away.

"I said I'm fine, it's just a few bruises from the battle. I bruise easily that's all," she said quickly and shoved her sleeve down to her fingers. Tai took a deep breath and looked at her sternly for a moment. The atmosphere became tense and everyone stood silent, not wanting, or daring to say anything. Izzy then straightened up and took a breath.

"Well, we'll have to take better care of you then won't we?" he teased lightly and touched Skyy's back carefully. Skyy felt relieved but Izzy's eyes, as well as Tai's and everyone else's still looked clouded. She looked to the ground.

"Yeah, sorry to be so much trouble, I'll be leaving early," Skyy muttered and walked away from the group. She headed towards the portal they had come through. Pleomon, who had fallen off when Skyy had collapsed, sat in shock on the ground before finally collecting herself and following hesitantly after Skyy. A look of hurt and fright was etched over the small digimon's features.

The rest of the seven kids stood silent, still in shock. Tai's burning gaze followed Skyy as she walked further away. He looked at the ground and clenched his fists tightly, out of anger and frustration. He then nodded to himself and quickly bound after her. He caught up pretty quickly, for having long legs, and caught her shoulder lightly. Skyy turned around and gave him a very disgruntled expression.

"What? I said I was fine," she said angrily. Tai sighed and tried to calm his temper. He paused and looked at her for a moment. He leaned forward hesitantly and whispered to her.

"You're sure it's not…it's not anything to do with you being sick right?" he asked. And then she understood. He was only worried about her. A smile tugged at her lips and she rolled her eyes.

"Well gee, if you were worried you didn't need to yell," she said bluntly and Tai backed up, frowning.

"Sorry, I have a bit of a temper sometimes, but who would be able to stand seeing all those bruises on you? What happened?" Tai asked. Skyy glanced at her covered arm and sighed in defeat.

"I don't quite know, I think I really do bruise easily. These weren't here before, it must have been the battle," Skyy assumed. Tai eyed her arm and grimaced.

"You need to be more careful then," he said softly, and Pleomon piped up in agreement. Skyy just smiled and ruffled his hair playfully. She gave him the most reassuring smile she could.

"I'll be fine, don't let the others worry. At this rate they might think I'm being beaten or something stupid like that," she chuckled dryly and shrugged. Tai nodded in reply. "But I think I will go to the doctor, my parents might faint if I don't," she mused. She then waved goodbye to the worried brunette and trotted off to the portal, zipping on ahead of them with Pleomon. She figured she'd have to call him again to tell him she was fine and there would be nothing wrong with her.

Because she knew there was nothing wrong with her.

She just bruised easily.

* * *

Skyy sat with a blank expression on the hospital bed with her legs dangling limply over the sides. She looked at the pale, tiled ground and couldn't seem to think of anything at the moment except, _so I'm in this place again, huh?_

Her mom and dad stood close together with wary and tired expressions. Skyy had told them about the bruises when she'd returned home with Pleomon and after a bunch of hysterics from her mother they managed to get the bus to the hospital and had a check up with Skyy's old doctor that her and Yuki visited when they'd lived in Japan. He was experienced with their cases and her parents trusted him the most.

So after they'd arrived the doctor took a look at her bruises and prodded her here and there a bit, making a diagnosis. And with the sight of the amount of bruises Skyy's mother went into another fit of hysteria. After she'd calmed down the doctor explained that he wanted to do a few more tests on her because the bruises were a little suspicious. So after Skyy had gone through about four or five physical and blood tests she sat now waiting for the results in the small doctor's office.

She swung her legs back and forth lightly out of boredom and glanced around the bleak room. Suddenly the door clicked open and Skyy's parents were on high alert. The doctor strode in with a pile of reports and silently took a seat at the desk across from the bed. The small family looked at him expectantly and Skyy's face faltered a bit when she saw the pained expression on the doctor's face. The silence was piercing as everyone held in their breaths.

The doctor folded his hands slowly and then glanced up at Skyy, who flinched lightly under the man's gaze. "So we have run the tests and the results…" he paused and Skyy heard her mother whimper lightly.

…

"Are negative I'm afraid…Skyy has come out of her previous remission and new cancer cells seem to have appeared in her blood system." He finally finished. His statement was like a cutting knife and Skyy's mom gave out a cry and hid her face into Skyy's father's chest. Skyy felt frozen and she stared blankly ahead of her, not seeing anything.

"It seems to be a return of the previous cancer, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, now we can start treatments right away with some standard chemotherapy with injections of prednisone, L-asparaginase, and vincristine about every month. As well as some intensification therapy to eliminate any remaining cells," the doctor began.

"But we did all that _**before**_! We've even attended the appointments for two years now so she can take the drugs to make sure it doesn't come back! Why is it _**now**_ that it's coming back after she's been well for so long!" her mother sobbed and the doctor looked apologetic.

"Because she is a relapse case, we'll have to take extra precaution, in which at this point in time I'd offer a chance of an Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplant surgery if we are still unable to get rid of all the leukemia in Skyy's body," the doctor offered slowly. Her mother let out a loud wail again and the doctor turned to face Skyy. "What are your thoughts on this Skyy?" he asked. Skyy opened her mouth a crack but nothing came out. The doctor waited and when she didn't say anything he nodded to himself and stood up from his chair. He excused himself to allow them to make a decision and slipped out of the small room.

Skyy's mother collapsed into a chair and covered her face with her hands and was mumbling something over and over again. It was muffled but it sounded something like, "not again, not again."

Skyy stood up shakily. "Bathroom," she muttered and quickly walked over to the small bathroom in the room and shut herself inside. She paused before slipping down the door slowly until she was on her knees. How could this happen? All of a **sudden**? She had been healthy for so long…she was almost officially cured.

Just… just was was she going to tell her friends?

What was she going to tell Tai?

Her heart lurched in fear.

Her ears perked when she heard her parents talking on the other side of the door. She leaned her face against it in order to clearly make out what they were saying.

"We never should have left Canada," her mother was saying, or sobbing more like it. Her father made a sound as if he disagreed with her.

"You know you don't mean that. Don't tell me you haven't noticed our daughter lately," her father said. Her mother sighed deeply.

"Yes…yes I have," Skyy frowned. What did they mean? What were they talking about? She shifted her position so she was more comfortable.

"She's changed. I mean she cheered up a little when we were in Canada, but since coming back here, she's opened up so much," her father said fondly.

"Yes…she has friends now; she's going out with other girls and studying together with classmates. And she seems close to that Kamiya boy. Who would've known?" her mother replied.

"Yeah, I don't know what they did but it's like…they fixed her. She smiles and laughs now and she talks to us more."

Skyy stood rigid at the door.

"She's becoming the girl she used to be, the bright and happy child we used to know," her father continued. She felt her mother shift.

"Maybe, do you think she's getting over it? Maybe, she's accepting that Yuki died?"

Skyy's body stilled at those words. Her breath caught and all of her limbs turned ice cold.

Accept?

…

_**Accept?**_

How dare they. How dare _**she**_. How could she ever accept Yuki's death? Skyy sat in shock as a few tiny words whispered in her subconscious.

What they were saying. It was _**true**_.

As she listened to them she realized she had changed, she had brightened up. She had made friends.

Skyy almost choked.

Why? Why did she do that? Had she really forgotten? How could she do this to herself? She wasn't supposed to make friends. She wasn't supposed to forget.

She wasn't supposed to make any connections. Yet that's exactly what she did. She'd become close to Tai and his friends and she'd had a good time and forgotten her promise, to herself, and to her **sister**.

She had been planning everything from the very beginning. She had leukemia, she was going to die, and she had accepted that long ago, before she'd even gone into remission. That's why she'd told herself she wouldn't make any more worldly connections. To see her sister again, that was her goal. And because she was already on death's row, it would only been a matter of time.

So **why**?

**Why** had she been so stupid?

She's planned it all out and still she messed everything up.

She wasn't supposed to make friends, she wasn't supposed to become happy and lose sight. She was supposed to die.

This wasn't good.

This had to stop.

Skyy looked at the ground darkly.

She had to stop this silliness. She'd gone too far. If she dropped everything now she should be fine. If she dropped everything, if she left it all, then her promise to Yuki could still come true without any problems. She needed to create distance and fast.

She'd gone too far.

This had to stop.

* * *

**WHA BAM! **

**Put that in your juice-box and suck it.**

**Next Chapter: ****Breaking Away**


	8. Breaking Away

Digimon Adventure: Connections

Chapter 8: Breaking Away

_The small apartment filtered with soft giggles as the two Tsutsumi twins were getting ready for bed. Yuki and Skyy wriggled underneath their father's tickling fingers and laughed until their sides ached. When their dad had gotten his fill he leaned back and smiled lovingly at his two angels. Yuki and Skyy's laughter died down but they still jumped with energy. _

"_Daddy we don't want to go to bed! We're not sleepy!" Skyy said impishly._

"_We want to play more!" Yuki squealed, tugging on her father's shirt sleeve. He smiled and waggled his finger at them._

"_Ah, ah, ah, it's past your bedtime already, you two have to go to school in the morning," their father said. Both brown eyed girls scrunched their noses in distaste._

"_But we don't like school," Yuki started_

"_No one understands us," Skyy finished._

"_And why is that?" their father said, concern lacing his tone ever so slightly. Both girls shrugged identically._

"_We don't know,"_

"_But we don't mind really," _

"_Yeah, it's more fun by ourselves!"_

"_Well then don't complain," their father said, poking them both lightly on their noses. Both girls smiled and let small giggles escape. As if on cue both girls yawned and their father quickly tucked them into their beds and shut off the light in their bedroom. _

_Skyy's eyes were just starting to droop shut when she heard familiar footsteps on the wooden floor. A second later her sheets moved and she felt her sister climb in next to her. Skyy snuggled closer to the warmth and Yuki did the same._

"_It __**is**__ more fun by ourselves right?" Yuki whispered, so as to not be detected by their parents. Skyy nodded quickly._

"_Yeah, we only need ourselves," she agreed and Yuki nodded once. Skyy put out her pinky finger in front of Yuki's face._

"_We'll be together forever, right; those silly kids at school who can't tell us apart are dumb." _

_Yuki immediately linked her finger with her sister's_

"_Of course! We are the same! They just don't understand us like we do. We'll always be together!"_

_But this simple statement made by two children reached much deeper within both girls. Much deeper. _

_To them, it was understood that all Skyy needed was Yuki, and all Yuki needed was Skyy. They were each other's most important person. They weren't just identical twins. They were linked much deeper and no other person could penetrate their barrier. They thought the same, spoke the same, understood the world through the same eyes, and understood each other on a much deeper level than anyone else. They were born together, so they were meant to stay together. If something separated them, they would do everything in their power to return to each other's sides._

_Both twins drifted off to sleep that night with silent vows etched into their hearts._

_Silent promises._

* * *

_She sat staring blankly at her notebook splayed out in front of her. The bell had rung shrilly and all the students quickly bustled out to their lockers and to their lunchboxes. They filtered back in to the room in groups chatting obnoxiously and it made her head hurt. But they didn't care. They never noticed her anyway. She was the silent new student who never looked up from her shoes and never spoke to anyone. A few confident students had approached her during her first week at school, but she disregarded them completely. Eventually they stopped trying to talk to her. If she wasn't going to bother talking to anyone they weren't going to bother with her._

_Just like usual she slipped up silently from her seat, packed her books away and silently floated out of the room unbeknownst to any of her classmates. That's the way it always was. She'd rather not be noticed. _

_She put away her books and took out her lunch box and locked her locker as silently as he could. The halls were empty now as the students had gone back into their classrooms to eat. It was different here. Back home at school people went out around the school campus to eat, but here they weren't allowed to leave the classroom during lunch unless they needed to meet a teacher for something. She didn't like it; it forced her to be surrounded by people. She didn't want to be with people, she didn't want to hear them talk and laugh and be happy. She stared blankly at the floor for a few moments before turning on her heel and wandering down the hall._

_She walked through the halls passing the classrooms with the student's voices filtering out into echoes in the hallway. She wandered until she came to her usual spot just tucked away under the stairwell. She crouched down slowly and folded her legs, placing her lunch on her lap and silently started to eat. She'd started eating here after the first day and hadn't once been found out. This was her place where she could just forget the world and the reality she now had to live in. _

_A year._

_A year without Yuki._

_It was torture. How could she be expected to live in a world with no Yuki in it? It was physically choking her._

_But it was only a matter of time before her own disease claimed her as well. She just had to hold out until then. Then…everything would be fine. _

_Skyy had told herself that after she had realized she would die, that she would make no more worldly connections. She wanted nothing to do with this world that took Yuki away from her and she wanted out of it as soon as possible. Living used to be enjoyable and a special thing she got to share with her twin. But now it was almost laughing at her. Saying "look how happy I can make you, too bad I can just take it all away in a second and watch you suffer."_

_Life sucked, living sucked. Life was worthless, just a plaything to some higher being._

_Cruel._

_Unbelievably cruel._

_She clenched her fork in her hand so tightly the plastic almost snapped. _

_Suddenly a figure plummeted down next to her without her realizing and she immediately snapped to attention. She peeked over in annoyance as a boy older than her stretched out his long legs in front of him and settled down about a foot from herself. She scowled to herself and returned to eating. This annoying boy, she would just ignore him if he tried talking to her._

_Silence. He sat silently munching on a sandwich beside her with his eyes lightly closed. A group of students walked up the stairwell, not noticing either of them and laughing loudly. Both were still quiet even as the laughing students faded into nothing. _

_Finally when the boy swallowed the last bit of his sandwich he spoke._

"_You're not supposed to be out of class you know," he said simply. She didn't look at him, she didn't answer him. She could feel him quietly looking at her, but she didn't bother looking back to see what he looked like. She could see his legs from the corner of her eyes but that's all._

_He was quiet for a moment longer before suddenly reaching out and lifting her curtain of hair from her face. Skyy jumped in surprise a reeled away from him, hiding her face in her hair once again, but the damage had already been done._

"_Wow! Your really quite pretty, I would love to see what you look like when you smile!" he laughed boyishly. She frowned. When she said nothing in response he laughed lightly and leaned back against the wall._

"_This is a nice little spot you got here, nice and quiet and no one can see you," the boy wondered aloud. Skyy wished he would go away, she wasn't going to talk to him, and his efforts were useless. She resumed eating and the boy suddenly leaned over and craned his neck so he was peeking at her through her hair. Skyy glanced up at him silently._

_He really was very handsome. He wasn't like the other kids, he looked like her. His hair was long and straight and just managed to touch his shoulders. It was brown and matched his warm brown eyes. His smile stretched to show the most good-looking smile she'd ever seen on someone and his eyes smiled along with his mouth. His skin was spotless and very well taken care of. He had a thin frame but his clothes hung on him nicely. He was obviously older then her._

"_My name is Jeremy, I'm in grade 8! How about you?" he said cheerily. Skyy turned her head away from him. Jeremy pouted slightly and leaned back._

"_Alright, your shy, my good looks do that to people, I get it," he sighed dramatically. Suddenly he peeked at her lunchbox and saw something scribbled in permanent marker on the side. His mouth stretched into another grin and he perked up excitedly. "Skyy! Your name is Skyy right! That's what your lunchbox says!" he said happily._

_Skyy glared at her lunch and quickly put it to the side of her, away from Jeremy's view. Jeremy laughed his boyish laugh again. "You must be in grade 7 because I haven't seen you around anyone I know," Jeremy said. Just then the shrill school bell that she hated rung out signaling lunch was over and she began to pack her garbage back into her lunchbox. Jeremy jumped up and stretched._

"_Well! That was fun!" he sighed. He spun around and waved even though she wasn't looking at him. "I'll see you tomorrow Skyy! Here in __**our**__ spot!" he grinned and sauntered off around the corner over to the area of the school where the grade eight classes were. Skyy stared blankly at where he once stood._

_Stupid boy. _

_She would never talk to him._

* * *

Skyy stared fuzzily into the dark distance as old memories played back in her mind. She wasn't paying attention to anything around her and her body had felt an odd numbness ever since she had returned from the doctor a few days ago. She felt cold hair blow her hair around her face and suddenly her vision seemed to return and her mind came back to reality and she blinked as she registered the local park structures that stood empty in the dark night. The park was empty save for eight figures.

"Alright, so we've all been called here today to discuss or next few moves in the Digital World," Izzy started. All the digidestined stood, or sat on other park structures and listened intently. Izzy had called them all out with big news. Apparently he felt they were almost ready to attack the mega darkness in the Digital World and it was time to set a date of attack. Izzy took a deep breath.

"So we've been fighting these seekers for almost three months now, and we've been studying how they work, as well as how to defeat them very closely," Izzy explained. "We've defeated a massive number of them and we know that Skyy and Pleomon's power is necessary to defeat them. I've decided that now is as best a time as ever to defeat the enemy once and for all, if we wait any longer it will be too late and the darkness will recover and take control. The longer we leave it sitting there the stronger it gets and harder it will be for us to get rid of it."

"What makes you so sure we're ready?" Sora asked quietly. Izzy grinned confidently.

"Don't worry, I have every ounce of confidence we can do this," he smiled and Sora couldn't help but smile back. Izzy then pulled out a tube of paper from his bag and splayed it out on a picnic table; everyone leaned in closer to see what it was. Izzy pointed to the map of the digital world, right in the middle where a big black blob was concentrated.

"This is our enemy, and I think I have a plan we can use to defeat it," he said. Tai smiled wickedly.

"Awesome! Spill it!" he said excitedly. Izzy circled the blob with his finger.

"The enemy is here and unfortuanly we still haven't met it face to face and we don't even know what its physical form looks like. It's surrounded by multitudes of multi-level seekers that are guarding it like a bunch of walls, with the strongest seekers being near the middle," Izzy pointed out the different sections of seekers on the map and everyone studied it seriously. "There are five waves in total and we must come all together and take out the seekers as fast as possible so we can expose and defeat the darkness directly."

"So like we did the other week?" TK asked, referring to their last major battle when Skyy and Hotarumon sped through the army of seekers at the speed of light. Izzy nodded.

"Exactly. We'll need Skyy and Pleomon to make all the first moves and purify the seekers," Izzy turned to look at Skyy, who was not looking at any of them. "You'll have to keep moving forward, don't think about us and just get as many seekers purified as fast as you can, we'll meet up with you at the end and battle all together," Izzy said. Skyy didn't make any movement that she had heard or recognized what he said and Izzy paused for a moment, confused at her lack of participation.

"Uh, but yes, I'm still not 100% positive that Hotarumon will be able to battle such a strong opponent just as is. Skyy, you'll really have to get in tune with your crest of Life and help her to Digivolve further, you're the only one of us 9 who still has their crest," Izzy said seriously. Skyy glanced up at him with empty eyes and Izzy was taken aback. She looked at him for a moment with no apparent expression before her eyes flickered downwards again.

Izzy blinked stupidly for a moment and Tai was shocked as well. What was wrong with this girl? Had she completely changed over the past few days or was it just him? Whenever Tai called her on the phone like usual she never seemed to be home or available. She disappeared during lunch at school and never talked to him or anyone else during classes. One day she came to first period then skipped the rest of their classes and wasn't seen until the next morning.

Everyone had noticed her change but never said anything, assuming it was family business or something else. But her complete lack of verbal or physical responses that night was getting a little unsettling. Was she even listening to anything they were talking about? Tai clenched his teeth together and told himself to calm down. Losing his temper all of a sudden wouldn't help anything; it would probably just make it worse. But he really wanted nothing more than to yell at her and ask her what the hell was wrong with her.

So he resulted to silently glaring at her from the side. Izzy seemed to remember himself and quickly shook off his surprise and found his voice again. "So, the plan is to attack in a few days time, this way we can get prepared and find excuses as to why we won't be home. I feel like this is going to be a longer battle," Izzy said tiredly.

Everyone nodded once and Izzy quickly wrapped up the meeting. As everyone said their goodbye's and dispersed, Izzy approached Skyy but before he could open his mouth she turned and walked away from him, pretending that she never noticed him walking up to her. Tai saw some resemblance of a pained look flash through her eyes but it was quickly masked by the empty expression that she had been adorning all night. Izzy stood still for a second before snapping his mouth shut and looking at his shoes, somewhat hurt. He shoved his hands into his jacket and trudded off to pack away his map.

Tai frowned and turned to look at Skyy, who was walking down towards the direction of their apartment. He twisted his mouth to the side. He glanced at his watch for the time for some reason and noticed the date instead. A smile suddenly spread across his lips and he turned and bounded over to Izzy.

"Hey Iz!" Tai said exuberantly. Izzy jumped in surprise at the brunette's sudden presence but smiled.

"What's up? Got questions?" he wondered. Tai shook his head and shoved his watch into Izzy's face. Izzy paused and raised an eyebrow. "That's quite a nice watch, I have one myself if you didn't notice," he said sarcastically. Tai rolled his eyes and pointed to the digital screen.

"No! No look at the date!" he said and Izzy looked again.

"It's July 3rd…so?" he said. Tai grinned.

"I've got an idea; we've got some planning to do!" Tai said excitedly and Izzy just looked at him curiously.

* * *

Skyy lay on her bed quietly and stared at the blank ceiling.

She was spending most her nights like this now. She didn't mind, she was starting to enjoy the comfort of silence.

Tai had only tried calling once today.

Usually it was more.

Of course she didn't care whether he called or not. She ignored his calls and told her parents not to pick them up. They were confused but never answered when the Kamiya residence was calling.

Skyy closed her eyes and greeted the darkness. She had sent Pleomon home a few nights ago and the confused digimon hadn't been there for a few days now.

She raised her arm slowly and pulled down the long sleeve of her shirt. She grimaced at the flowering bruises that patterned her forearms. It was almost as if there was more purple then natural skin colour. It was a side effect of her leukemia. Her skin was incredibly delicate. She remembered her and Yuki getting bruises like these where they were little. When Skyy'd visit her sister in the hospital she'd always have new bruises somewhere on her body because she didn't listen to the nurses and snuck out of her bed. Skyy remembered laughing with her and saying she would have done the same, and that staying in a bed all day was too boring.

Skyy lowered her arms and pulled her sleeve back down.

She **missed** her.

She missed her **so much**.

Their games, their pranks, they're stories.

Her hair, her face, her eyes, her laugh.

Though they looked completely identical, despite having different hair lengths, Skyy could never look in the mirror and see Yuki, she was only reminded of the half of herself that was forever missing.

But she was sick again now. She went to the hospital everyday now for check-up and tests. If she got even slightly worse, she'd have to be admitted. But at least that made it easier to avoid the mistakes she had made. She had only gone out yesterday because Tai literally picked her up and carried her there. That damn boy was too strong.

She sighed and cleared her brain of the previous night. She was forgetting, she had decided.

But as if Fate was secretly Satan and had other plans, the doorbell to her apartment suddenly rang out loudly and Skyy listened as her mother's slippers padded across the wood floor to the door. She heard the door creak open and her mother greet someone in surprise.

"Is Skyy home?"

Skyy suddenly bolted upright, wincing at her bruises as a side effect.

What was **he** doing here? She sat still and listened like a hawk as her mother mumbled something and started to pad towards her bedroom. Her door creaked open and her mother poked her head through.

"Um, Skyy, a boy named Izumi is here to see you…do you want to speak with him?" her mother asked hesitantly. Skyy hesitated before frowning and rolling over onto her side.

"No, I'm not home" she said simply and her mother paused.

"Are you sure?" she asked. Skyy made a noise as if to say yes and a moment later her door clicked shut. Skyy sighed into her pillow and closed her eyes lightly. If she didn't meet with them it would be easier to forget. Her only concerns now were Yuki, and nothing else.

Skyy tried to will herself to sleep simply for the sake of passing time. It was until she heard her bedroom door open for a second time that her eyes snapped open and she groaned inwardly. What did her mother want now? She rolled over to ask her mother what she wanted but her mouth froze before she could even begin her sentence.

There in her doorway stood one maroon haired boy with his head peeking around the open door. He smiled sheepishly when she caught him and opened the door a little wider. "Hi Skyy!" he said cheerfully. Skyy so badly wanted to tell him to leave but a weird twisting of conflicting emotions that rose in her gut seemed to be stopping her from doing that. She resorted to glowering at her sheets as she waited for Izzy to announce why he was there.

Izzy sensed her unwillingness to speak first and quickly cleared his throat nervously. "I figured you were home despite what your mom told me, she did go and ask you after all," Izzy started, then paused, looking at the floor. "I came because me and the others have a surprise for you! I know its a little last minute but we planned it all pretty quickly and we sensed that you were feeling a little down recently so we thought, well Tai thought, that it would cheer you up," Izzy fumbled with his hands. Skyy looked him up and down curiously. She sighed and sat straight up.

"I'm sorry, but I can't go out, I'm…kind of tired," she lied. Izzy bit his lip, thinking. He did that a lot, Skyy noticed. She quickly pushed that from her head though, scowling slightly at herself.

"Well, it would just be for a little while, we spent a lot of time getting things ready," Izzy persisted. Skyy frowned.

"What is it?"

"See that's the catch, it's a surprise," Izzy replied. Skyy lolled her head to the side.

"Sorry, I don't feel like going, maybe some other time," Skyy said blankly. And for some reason, the look Izzy gave her really made her regret what she said. He looked defeated and nodded once.

"Ah, of course," he said tersely and turned to leave. Skyy watched him leave and her chest felt like it was tearing. Why did she feel so torn about this? If it had been Tai she would have turned him away without a second thought. Why did Izzy get to her so much? She heard Izzy quietly say goodbye to her parents and slip on his shoes. Skyy's fingers twitched on her covers and as soon as she heard the door click shut she pushed the sheets from her legs and sped out of her room. She raced to the front door and opened it just to see Izzy making his way to the elevator.

"U-um!" Skyy spoke up and Izzy turned in surprise, his face brightening. Skyy opened her mouth but then seemed to lose her words.

"Skyy! Did you change your mind?" Izzy asked hopefully and her mouth snapped shut. She gritted her teeth. He stepped closer and Skyy hugged herself lightly.

"No...I...I'm sorry…for not coming," Skyy muttered and Izzy's face feel slightly.

"Oh, no, that's okay, you don't have to come if you don't want to, it is pretty last minute and all, we don't want to force you," he plastered on a smile and shrugged lightly. Again Skyy's chest felt like it was tearing.

Why was he so nice and polite to her? Why did he affect her so much? Why did she feel like this? Skyy bit her lip and avoided his gaze. She shifted on her feet and felt awkward. Now what should she do?

Just then, breaking the silence like butter, Skyy's mother popped her head out of the front door and looked back and forth between the two. Skyy jumped in surprise and Izzy looked taken aback. Skyy's mother blushed bashfully.

"Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear you two," she confessed and turned her attention to Skyy. "Sweetie? Why don't you go out for a bit? As long as your, um, careful, you should have some fun! You've been inside all the time the past few days and surely being with your friends will help make you feel better!" her mother said quickly. Skyy gave her the best glare she could, filling it to the brim with venom.

"Mom, I said I didn't want to go," she said. Her mother looked at her for a moment, as if deciding what to say. Finally after a long pause she answered.

"Well then, you're not allowed back in," she said and swiftly slammed the front door in Skyy's face. Skyy heard the lock click and her mouth dropped.

Skyy glanced from the door to Izzy and he looked just as shocked as she did. Skyy quickly shook her head and grabbed the door handle.

"Mom! **Mom**! Let me in! This isn't funny open the **door**!" Skyy yelled angrily whilst shaking the door desperately.

"Not until you go see your friends! I'm sick of you moping around! Go **do **something!" she heard her mother yell back determinedly. Skyy glared at her front door. She stood long and hard before kicking the door with all her might, which wasn't that much, to vent her anger and she huffed loudly.

"**Fine**!" she yelled and stomped towards, and past, the dumbfounded red-head. Once she got to the elevator and he still hadn't moved Skyy whipped around.

"Well! Are you coming or not!" she snapped and Izzy quickly snapped back to focus and darted over to her with a smile tugging at his lips.

"Yes! Yes, coming!"

* * *

The way over to the school building had been no less then completely awkward. Skyy fumed the entire time whilst Izzy was too scared to talk to her for fear of being unintentionally yelled at. They managed to sneak into the school building and Izzy led her up to the second floor computer lab. Skyy frowned. Why was he taking her to the digital portal? She wasn't going to go back to that place if that's what he wanted. He slid open the door to the classroom and it was dark. He stepped to the side so she could go in first and she looked at him suspiciously. She hesitantly stepped forward and as soon as her foot entered the room the light flickered on and yells and cheers filled her ears.

Skyy froze like a deer caught in the headlights as Tai and Sora and everyone else popped out from under and behind desks and set of confetti poppers, cheering loudly. Skyy stared at them with wide eyes and Izzy chuckled behind her, sliding past her to join everyone else.

"Hey Kiddo! Don't think we haven't noticed your mood lately! So we've made an official party to welcome Skyy as a digidestined! Though it's a bit late," Tai laughed and wrapped his arm around Skyy's shoulders. Skyy blinked stupidly.

Sora skipped forward and grasped Skyy's hand. "We got you presents and a cake and everything! To be honest Tai only told us about it last night and we had to get everything together really quickly! You've been quite depressing lately so we wanted to cheer you up! Despite it being so last minute," Sora explained.

"We really wanted to give you a nice surprise!" Kari smiled sweetly. Everyone nodded.

"Yeah, it was all Tai's idea," Matt grinned. Tai grinned triumphantly and looked down at Skyy. She stood and gave them all long looks.

What...was this? They had done all this for her?

"We know we all haven't known you for a long time, but we were all really glad to meet you," Sora began. "I mean you were a little distant at first, but we've really come to get to know you!" she said sweetly. Skyy hid her face in her bangs. Sora glanced at everyone's faces and stepped closer to Skyy.

"I know it's sudden, but welcome to the team!" Sora said and patted Skyy on the shoulder. Just then Skyy let out a quiet laugh. Sora blinked in surprise. Skyy's laugh was dry and not genuine.

"Me? You think you know me?" Skyy muttered. She still had time. She shouldn't have come in the first place. But if she acted now…she could push them away and it would be easier to let go.

Confused looks passed over everyone's faces and Sora looked a little hurt. Tai frowned. "Hey. Skyy...that's…we put a lot of effort into this for you, couldn't you just—" he began and Skyy shoved off his arm and the motion made him unable to finish his sentence.

"You guys…with your easy going ways and your happy memories and your stupid Digital World and your stupid digimon," Skyy spat, the ball of emotion she had been gulping down rising with a force in her throat. Everyone's jaws dropped. Tai looked at her incredulously.

"Excuse me?" he hissed. Skyy chuckled again, but as she spoke her voice cracked.

"You guys don't know anything about me…and you don't need to…because this was a mistake…" she forced the words out. Izzy stepped closer.

"What do you mean a mistake?" he asked, the hurt in his voice coming across very clear to her. When Skyy spoke again her voice was a sob and it seemed clear to everyone that she didn't completely mean what she was saying.

"Everything! I'm such a fool I shouldn't even be here with you people, I don't need any of you and I don't want any friends!" her voice rose and her body began shaking as her emotions fully surfaced. Tai moved to touch her shoulder but she swatted him away and backed out of the room as tears spilled from her eyes. "D-don't touch me…don't talk to me…d-don't…." she stuttered. Tai's words were lost as she looked at him with a look of absolute fear on her face.

"J-just….just please disappear!" Skyy sobbed out and in a blur she bolted from the room. In a second Izzy bolted after her without even thinking. Everyone stood in surreal shock, digesting what just happened. Kari looked as if she was about to cry.

"She…I didn't…know..." Kari whimpered in shock. No one could speak and all stood stone still. Tai stared in the place where Skyy once stood and his chest felt empty.

Scared. She looked so scared…and so…so **sad**. Tai's chest clenched painfully and without a second breath he ran from the room in the direction he saw Skyy and Izzy go and Sora let out a whimper and collapsed into a nearby chair. Everyone stayed still.

* * *

She ran….she heard someone behind her but she didn't care so she ran. Every fiber in her mind told her to fun, get away, as fast as she could.

Her words hurt her, what she said to them, she didn't want to do it. But Yuki was more important. She had to get rid of those people. And shoving them away was the best way.

"Skyy!"

Go away.

"Skyy please!"

Just go away.

"Stop **running**!"

No. Please. Go Away.

Skyy squeezed her eyes shut and she tried with all her might to just run. Finally a hand caught her wrist and she lurched to a stop, breathing heavily.

A warm hand, very warm.

"Please, just explain to me," Izzy pleaded. Skyy sobbed loudly and collapsed to her knees. Izzy stood for a moment.

It was raining, when had it started raining? Skyy's clothes stuck to her body and her hair was plastered to the sides of her face. Izzy's voice was barely audible against the rain.

"Just tell me…what's wrong?" he pleaded again and fresh tears sprung to Skyy's eyes. It was a minute before she could grasp her breath and form words.

"I told you! I don't need you guys," she spat loudly through the rain. Izzy pinched his eyebrows together in concern.

"I have a hard time believing that," he said.

"This is pointless," Skyy muttered.

"What is?"

"Everything! Just everything! Living is so pointless, I'm so sick of it! This is all such a waste of time! I don't want to be here anymore," Skyy sobbed loudly. Izzy's eyes widened. What on earth...had happened to her to make her feel like this?

"Skyy, if you just-… I can help you…all of us will help you," Izzy pleaded. Skyy let out a dry laugh that didn't match the tears streaming down her face.

"Help me? Why?"

"Because, you're our friend, you're the digimons' friend; we all care about you, if you're like this…then…" Izzy tried but Skyy didn't seem like she was really registering his words.

"You want to know?" she croaked. Izzy's breath hitched.

"Yes, please…tell me what's hurting you so much…" he said, kneeling down so he was at eye-level with her.

"Gone," Skyy said simply. Izzy blinked.

"Pardon?"

"Gone…all gone…she's gone…"

"Who's…?"

"My sister…Yuki, she's all that matters to me, and she's **gone**!" Skyy cried, slamming her tiny fist into the gravel. Izzy didn't know how to respond. Gone…did that mean? Her sister was **dead**?

"Why? How can something like that happen…? She was…**everything** to me!"

"You're..." Izzy breathed. She had mentioned her sister only once…so this…this was the truth?

Izzy didn't have siblings, being an only child. But from watching Tai and Matt with their younger siblings…he knew it was a connection that an only child could not understand. A connection that remains very precious in someone's heart. And when something like that was broken, or taken away so suddenly…Izzy didn't want to even imagine the unimaginable pain that would cause someone. He wouldn't wish it on anyone.

"I….I'm sorry…about your sister," Izzy said carefully. "But...how can you say you don't need us? You're lonely aren't you?" Izzy said softly. He hesitantly touched Skyy's shoulder as she cried. He had to try and comfort her and make her understand. His efforts were in vain though and she swatted his hand away.

"I **am** lonely…but you won't help, Yuki and I were born together as twins, two of the same…we are meant to be **together**," Skyy continued. Suddenly she fell silent and Izzy thought she was saying something and leaned closer to listen. But she wasn't speaking. She wasn't moving and Izzy started to get concerned until she finally lolled her head upwards to look at the bleak, raining sky.

She looked like a lost soul. Broken to the bone and not seeking any help. She slowly, and achingly, closed her eyes and breathed in deep.

"Y'know…" she stated in a ghostly voice. Izzy watched her, almost scared to speak. Skyy paused, feeling the rain hitting her face like tiny tear drops before she continued to speak.

"I'm dying," she turned and looked at Izzy and it wasn't so much her statement that shook him but the look her eyes. Her eyes were completely blank. Void of any emotion or personality at all and it ripped his heart in two. He couldn't move...he didn't know what to do. He was lost, lost in shock, in pain, and in, utter loss.

"D-dy…dy—"he stuttered and his voice came out hoarse.

"I have leukemia, and I'm dying…it won't be long now….Yuki…" she mumbled in that same ghostly voice. She looked at him blankly as he gazed at the ground. "That's why I don't need you," she said. Izzy glanced up at her, a new wave of hurt flashing over his face.

"That's why…" Skyy's voice hitched and finally a look of utter and complete anguish crossed her features. "If I don't need you then…I can leave you and it won't **hurt**," she breathed heavily as she cried and Izzy couldn't do anything but just stare at her. Huge sobs ripped through her body and she crouched and hid her face in her hands. The two stayed like that until Skyy was able to shakily wobble to her feet. Izzy was too numb to do so and sat in his knees, the muddy ground soaking into his shorts.

"So please…don't try to fix me...don't follow me…just…don't…not when I'm so close to her now," Skyy whimpered and before Izzy knew it she had turned and run from the school property.

The rain hammered down around the young boy but all of his senses had long ago shut down. All sounds had left and the world became quiet. It became nothing. Nothing but shock. Nothing but her words ringing in his ears and his heart completely braking apart.

A few meters away behind a tree and out of view, another young boy with his damp brunette hair hiding his face was crouched down and shedding tears that blended in with the rain.

…

So that was it.

* * *

**Oh gawd.**

**So dramatic.**

**And so awkward to write…huuuuuughhh**

**I don't know if I might go back and make revisions if I can...whenever I read over I feel like it's going too fast.**

**Anyway, please review! **

**Next chapter: ****Determination**


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